Converting an Oil Bath Air Cleaner to a Paper Element

The air cleaner conversion turned out very nice and can be performed in a few simple steps.

1956 Ford Air Cleaner

In the month of February I visited my parts stash in North Carolina. Among the treasure trove of 50's Ford inventory was a dented and dusty 1956 Ford air cleaner for a Holley 4000 four barrel carburetor. I could not remember where I had originally purchased the air cleaner - it must have been at a swap meet such as the one in Carlisle, Pennsylvania or maybe at a smaller event back in Ohio. Whatever the history, I made the decision to wrap the air cleaner in bubble wrap, pack the thing in a suitcase, check the bag with the airline, and pray for the best!

The reason for bringing it back home to the garage was that I am continuing to work on these Holley 4000 carburetors. Desiring to get my Y Block run stand going again sometime in the future, having an air cleaner made for the Holley four barrel would provide both fit and function.

The first order of business: cutting the lid off the original oil bath filter element.

The air cleaner made the trip just fine, and if it had any new dents it was hard to tell. Musing about the condition of the oil bath element, I began to consider modifying the works so that a modern paper element filter could be used. In passenger cars, 1956 was the last year for the oil bath air cleaner. I can recall at 17 years old my first experience with changing the oil in my 1955 Ford oil bath air cleaner. Albeit that was for the Holley 94 two barrel carburetor, but the principle of use, cleaning the element, and maintenance was the same as this four barrel version from 1956. Oil bath air cleaners work just fine. However, the older they get the more the horse hair element inside the sealed filter continues to break down and hold contaminants. You can see from the photos and the video below that there were bugs and other gunk beyond the screen - impossible to remove when following the normal cleaning standard of soaking the element in kerosene or some type of solvent.

All kinds of particulates were trapped in the original horse hair filter element.

Knowing that the air cleaner had quite a few dents and that at some point in its life a DIY guy had welded up a rotted out portion at the rear, I decided it was a good candidate to modify and install a paper element filter. After trimming the lid, I removed the horse hair from the well and was curious about flammability. This photo proves the stuff goes up quick! (more in the video)

After removing the lid, a couple questions had to be answered. The most difficult of which was determining which filter would fit without further modification. Also, I had to figure out whether or not I would keep the metal tabs on the underside of the lid and decided on the necessity of a rubber channel for the sheet metal lip that was left on the underside of the lid after removing it from the orginal horse hair element.

Three tabs had to be removed from the bottom of the lid before measuring for a filter.

Originally, I was just going to bend the tabs down as flush as possible withthe sheet metal, but after considering the fact that I needed a completely flat surface to seal up against the top of the air filter, I removed the tabs. Each of the three tabs had two small spotwelds. I simply ground these down and removed the tabs. After that, clean up was a breeze.

The next steps were to remove the original seal on the bottom of the air cleaner (where it rests on the carburetor), degrease the air cleaner and the lid, blast the surfaces to remove rust and old paint, and to dull the edge of the sheet metal lip left by my cuts. I actually ordered a length of rubber trim for the lip, but in the end there was no need to use it.

I hammered out as many dents as I could and used a little body filler here and there. I used Duplicor engine ceramic primer, and for the final color I turned to VHT Ford Argent Wheel Paint. During the sanding and painting process, I used Eastwood's Pre Painting Prep spray to clean the surfaces before spraying. This is the product I used on most of the car back when I did some body work and gave the whole think a fresh coat of paint. I highly recommend this cleaner.

I will have to admit I was not that concerned with building a paint booth or keeping out contanimants because this was just an air cleaner to be used on a run stand. However, I will say that using a 5 gallon bucket and lid and a 1 gallon paint can worked very well to prop up the lid and air cleaner at separate times for paint.

Installing a new rubber seal purchased from Tee-Bird Auto Parts was a breeze.

Now for the most difficult portion - finding an actual filter! I spent a couple of nights taking measurements and looking up websites for dimensions, etc. Wix filters has to have one of the best search engines for just such an effort. I highly recommend it - the link is here. In the end, I cheaped out and bought the Fram equivalent, part CA3501. It fit wonderfully! Just a little over 1/4" stuck above the lip of the air cleaner housing so it resembled the air cleaner setup that was on my 1955 Ford when I was a teenager - even that original oil bath element rose just a bit above the air cleaner housing.

Wix 46255 (or Fram CA3501) is the air filter that fit just about perfect in the air cleaner.

I am very happy with how the air cleaner turned out in the end and was surprised how well the filter element fit my conversion. My 1956 ECZ Holley 4000 carburetor is about finished, and I plan to "run it in" on my 292 currently in my 1955 Ford Fairlane just for kicks. For now, enjoy the video I recently posted on my YouTube channel.

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The Hot Rod Reverend