Re: TWIN 4BBL BATWING AIR CLEANER.

Posted by Leeedy On 2014/5/18 12:00:34

The dual 4BBL "batwing" oil bath air cleaner for Chevy LOOKS the same, but the distance on the carbs is different. It will not fit. Once saw a Packard Caribbean unit butchered by a Chevy guy for sale at a SoCal swap meet in the 1970s. Guy couldn't figure out why it didn't fit his Chevy engine and was selling it claiming it had been "manufactured incorrectly by GM"...ahhh. Price was nice because of the seller not knowing what he had!

For a short time there was a MoPar version, but this had heavy ribs pressed into the top of the main section and would require some huge modifications to make it look and work right. It was painted gold.

The Cadillac Eldorado batwing will fit on the Packard engine and carbs, but for a Packard must be turned backwards to the way it is used on the Cad. Also, the Cad has a cast chrome "V" symbol on top that would have to be removed and holes filled. Also, some of the Cadillac units attach their pots not using wing nuts, but rather with cast chrome dished knobs (these were actually old kitchen drawer pulls). It was also painted gold.

And for the hanging "pots" on the batwing... the Chevy and early Eldo pots are the same as Packard. But Cadillac later enlarged their pots and those are much bigger than Packard.

By the way... these pots are supposed to have oil in the bottom... to catch airborne debris. Thus the term, "oil bath"...

And almost never does anyone use proper decals on this air cleaner in the proper positions. At one point, there was a large special decal that actually made it out onto a couple of these air cleaners for 1955, but apparently was not kept and was not on early production cars. There was none on the Howard Hughes/Jean Peters 1955 Caribbean which was a very early serial number car.

I have indeed had batwings opened up and parts fabricated long years ago. But it is not an easy matter. There is tubing inside and of course, the main housings are die-pressed....AND have rolled flanges and stacks. A complicated assembly to duplicate accurately..