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This thread has been a real eye-opener for me. I didn't know that these air cleaners are oil mesh. I read somewhere years ago that there are passages inside the cleaner that cause incoming air to change direction several times before reaching the carburetor, and dust supposedly falls out of the air as it is changing its direction. So I didn't know it could be serviced.

Concerned about inadequate air filtering, over the years I tried different foam rubber overwraps around the louvers, but they all collapsed when accelerating and starved the engine for air. I also tried the Honeywell room air cleaner prefilter material, but that wouldn't stay put on the cleaner when roadtested.

The servicing instructions seem kind of primitive to me. Swirling it in gasoline, diesel fuel, or paint-removing mineral spirits looks to me to just generate a disposal problem: How to get rid of 4 to 6 gallons of dirty gas, diesel or mineral spirits. Also, doesn't it drip oil onto the manifold and generator after re-oiling by dipping?

If a pleated air filter could be found that would slip over the louvers, that would be a better way to go. Unfortunately, most filter manufacturer websites do not list their products by size. Except K&N, they have a search feature that takes your I.D., O.D. and height parameters and lists what they offer that's closest to your input size. The louvered section of our air cleaners measures about 5 1/4 inches in diameter and the cleaners with ten louver stacks are about 3 1/4 inches high. K&N makes a filter to just that size under their part number E-3340. I see from the photos that some cleaners have six louver stacks; K&N makes 5 1/4 I.D. by 6 1/4 O.D. filters in heights ranging from 1 1/2 to 6 inches, so there's bound to be one that fits these also. No local auto supply store will stock this size, so I ordered it from K&N; they had it in stock. These filters are cleanable with water and reusable. They recommend cleanings at intervals up to 50,000 miles so it should be quite a while before our low-mileaged classics would need that.

The filter slips on easily over the louvers and seats on the flange at the base of the louver stacks. There is about a 1/8 inch gap at the opposite end of the louver stacks that could permit air to bypass the filter; I sealed that with silicone. Those who show their cars competitively might want to devise a different sealing method, perhaps a foam rubber ring that would be easily removed when on the show field. There are no clearance issues nor were there any drivability issues found on a 15 mile roadtest.

My 34 Eight also has the oiled mesh filter, though you no doubt know a full oil bath filter was optionally available and would be a superior unit, even superior to the paper elements, if you can find one. It's described and pictured in the 33/34 Service Letters.

I clean my oil mesh with charcoal lighter fluid and it only takes a quart or so; I don't dip and soak it, I spray the solvent in thru the louvers and let the dirty solvent drain out until it's clean. Disposal is simple, throw it in with your waste oil - at most it's a quart or so.

I re-oil with SAE 50 motor oil and just leave a towel on the manifold for a few hours to catch the excess that drips off. After that any excess will be drawn into the engine and burned.

I had been keeping an eye out for one of those oil bath cleaners but I never came across one. Using lighter fluid as a solvent is clever, I didn't think of that. I was going to use Brakleen but then I decided I wanted to also try to clean those inner passages where the air changes direction. So I wound up using water added at low pressure to not disturb the copper mesh, rotating the cleaner and sloshing it around those inner chambers, exiting through the copper mesh, backflushing the mesh in the process. I did this a few times until the water coming out of the louvers was clear and set it out in the hot sun for the rest of the day to dry out.

The K&N filters are also oiled, they come from the factory oiled and ready to install. So I now have an oiled filter on the outside of the cleaner, easier to service with a much longer service interval.

I was able to get a K & N filter inside the existing air cleaner on a '32.

Looks the same from the outside, if you look closely you can see the paper element instead of the copper mesh.

Using a conical filter I was able to find one that exceeds the cfm of the engine.

Not original but I wanted to protect the engine better, especially after a re-build.

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Very clever and most likely undetectable by even the most eagle-eyed of purists.

Should read
packardclub.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2276

On my '41 I decided to use a washable filter, similar to the K&N:goo.gl/C3YtHF, made by AEM.

I decided to use the AEM, because it is all black and doesn't stand out as much as the K&N. Purchased from Amazon.

I have retained the original and put it on for shows and cruise-ins.

Thanks for the links it was made for interesting reading on the air cleaner. I appreciate all of the information on the K&N and AEM air cleaners.

Just a note of "Thanks" to Don and everyone for contributing all this invaluable info. This added info presents great alternatives.
Thanks again to everyone.
TomB