Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

A friend was looking at my car and expressed concern that it does not have a paper air cleaner. Why haven't I converted?

Has anyone actually done this? It makes some sense, or seems to. What is involved and what are the pros and cons?

FWIW, properly maintained oil bath air cleaners and partial flow oil filters work just fine. Those who tell you to get rid of them will be telling you next to swap in a SBC. They know not whereof they speak.

The main disadvantages to oil bath air cleaners were:
1. Height - they need to be tall to work best. Stylists wanted lower hood lines.
2. Weight - significantly heavier than paper
3. Maintenance - takes a lot longer to clean and refill an oil bath air cleaner than just tossing in new paper.

jack vines

I have fitted modern paper air filter elements to my '37 Six and '47 Custom. I remove the center section of the original oil bath air filter assembly (the part with the fiber material in it) and find a pleated paper air filter with the approximate dimensions to replace it. The appearance is original looking. I don't have to mess with cleaning it, just replace when necessary. I have not tried this on my '55 Clipper yet, but it is on the list. I will let readers know how this works. I have paper filter numbers for the '37 and '47 if anyone is interested.

(o{I}o)

I can understand that not everyone feels this way, but to me part of the appreciation and enjoyment of the old car hobby is learning and performing those maintenance operations on your car that went with the era of the car. As oil bath filters are highly effective when maintained, I wouldn't think of changing it. I feel the same way about many of the other "improvements" that folks seem to be compelled to do, but - to each is own.

Fascinating. I would have thought that a paper air filter would be far more effective. After all, with paper, all the air is filtered: with oil bath what? the majority of dirt just comes right in--or so "common sense" would suggest.....

Actually, in an oil bath, all the air that enters has to pass thru the oiled and reoiled media (kapok, metal mesh, or whatever) and the dirt drops to the bottom of the pan and usually is quite compacted when you go to clean it. The simple "oiled mesh" air filters, common in the early 30s and back, can be reasonably effective but requires far more frequent cleaning as there is no refreshing of the oil on the media, just that oil that is applied to the mesh after cleaning.

Just to add my two cents - most farm equipment which naturally operates in a dusty dirty environment uses oil bath air filters because of their efficiency. Farmers are used to performing regular maintenance, unlike city folk who don't want to grease, clean, and maintain a vehicle.

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No, as this shows, "common sense" is quite uncommon. If one understands how the oil bath filter is designed, using inertia and attraction, it becomes easier to understand. Any dirt particles in the air have mass. Oil bath air filters are designed so the incoming air has to make a 180-degree turn. The dirt, having mass, can't make the abrupt turn and continues straight down, embedding in the oil pool at the bottom. As long as there is a wet area at the bottom, a quantity of dirt which would long since have clogged a paper filter, just lies on the bottom and doesn't affect the efficiency of an oil bath. The air coming up passes through the oil-wetted mesh. The very fine particles are caught by the oil on the mesh.

jack vines

Forgive me that it says Chevrolet on the chrome cover over the AC filter. Once you cover it however no will ever know and it's a bit easier to clean and maintain IMHO. I first heard of the idea from Craig H. in Nevada & I think it may be covered also at www.1956packardpanther.com

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Jack, thank you for that great description of the function of an oil bath cleaner. They work wondefully,and aren't that much work to mantain. A lot of people have trouble understanding that there were smart people before them, and that in the field of mechanics, the only thing that is new is metalurgy, and that there were engineers just as smart as those active today.
I remember working a party at the museum I worked at in Detroit, a group of young engineers from a certain car maker headquartered in Dearborn MI were in the brass car room looking at a 1910 Chalmers and they were remarking "look at how stupid those tires and wheels are, look at the profile of the tire and how big the tire is, wow, they really didn't understand suspension then"
I was standing right there and I added "If they had paved roads back then I'm sure they would have designed it differently" they got quiet in a hurry.