Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
What year did ford stop using oil bath air cleaners in their cars.?
I have a 57 ford custom car with v8 that I want to switch over to paper but I want to find the oldest possible paper air cleaner that ford made so I don’t modernize the look of the engine compartment.
Ok, apparently we need more details, What was the last year ford used oil bath air cleaners on their full size cars with V8 engine. No guessing, I need someone who knows the answer. Thanks, ARB
1962–1963 or thereabouts
January 20th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
If you have an oil bath filter on a ‘57 it, most likely, isn’t original. I owned a ‘57 Ford Fairlane back in ‘59 & ‘60 and it had a paper filter. One of my best buddies had a ‘55 at the same time and it also had a paper filter. The last oil bath filter I remember on a Ford car was around ‘53 or maybe ‘54. The trucks may have run them a bit longer than the cars, I’m just not certain. Ford dropped the old flat head V8 in ‘54 and went to what they called the Y block overhead V8. I think it had the paper filter. I’m not sure about the six cylinder air cleaners. They may have run the oil bath later on the six.
ADDED: O.K. For sure the ‘55 and up full size Ford cars with a V8 had a paper element air cleaner. I know that for sure with no guessing. I owned a ‘57 2 door sedan with a 292 Y block V8 and my buddy owned a ‘55 sedan with a 272 Y block V8 . Both had paper elements. I worked on a ‘54 for a kid in 1962. The ‘54 was the first year for the Y block but I can’t recall, for the life of me, whether it had a paper or oil bath filter. From ‘55 up though they were paper element on the V8s. The old flat head V8s Ford ran from 32 through 53 were all oil bath. It could be that your car was a 6 cyl original and someone used the oil bath from the original when they dropped a V8 in it.
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Been repairing and restoring cars for over 50 years.