What are air cleaner baffles for?

[Phantom440]

Hey all, I recently picked up a dual snorkel RV air cleaner housing to use on my Coronet- no heat risers, so a straight shot into the filter area... I was cleaning it up and one of the baffles came off in my hand.

My question is, what are these for? I thought the best trick for power was to have as little air restriction into the combustion chamber as possible- so why are these little walls right there, blocking the flow?

I'm sorry if this has been answered- I tried searching the forum and couldn't find anything. Answers from Google are all about modern plastic air box mods...

Any help or advice would be appreciated- thanks!

 

[sleepar]

There there so the incoming air is forced around the element and not just accumulate dirt at the section of element it comes across... tack weld it back on....

 

[Phantom440]

Will do!
I wasn't sure if it was a noise thing, like silenced vs. Unsilenced units.

 

[sleepar]

The unsilenced ones get air from a gap at the bottom of the base 360° around like when you turn the cleaner lid upside down on the snorkel kind.... but at the top.