Ok so I bought my truck and the air filter was just sitting in the bed, but now that the truck is running and I'm getting ready to start driving it, I need to put it on.



So my question is 1. there is a hose connected to the side of the air filter, where do I attach that? I have the straight 6 engine btw if makes any difference. 2. How does air even get into the filter and down into the carburetor? It seems like everything is closed off.
And my last question-3. Is there any cleaning or replacing that I have to do, btw it is the oil bath filter and I know it can be messy?

A simple question; I just had trouble finding any information on it to answer so I figured I'd turn here. Thanks.

 

Can you post pics of the air cleaner taken apart? It does kind of look like something's amiss. Normally there's an air gap just under the lid.

From another member's 6-banger, although an older one:

 

That looks a bit different than the one I got with my truck. Maybe its from a car. Does it fit? The hose may be for a PCV?


Exterior




The gutz

I'm sure the more savvy fellas will be more help. Mine is off a 226 by the way. You do have the nut for the brace though.

 

Ok this is weird, I went ahead and took it apart to find just a regular air cleaner, not the oil bath kind.





I am not sure about the area below that though, the hose seems to feed into nothing and I don't see any way to get down into that lower half to see what is in there. I'm starting to wonder if this air filter is out of a different car maybe? Kinda weird.

 

Unlike any I've seen on these old trucks. Does the base of the filter fit onto the carburetor?

 

What does the very bottom look like?

 

I'm just gonna put my bet on someone converting an old oil bath to work with a paper element.

 

Yes it fits just fine on the carb


Bottom

 

But used too short of an element.

 

So do just replace the paper filter and put it on? I'm still confused about where the hose would connect and how air is able to get into the carburetor if that is on.

 

I would find an element that was a bit taller to give some breathing room around the top of the bottom. Does that make sense? Still wondering about the mystery cavity underneath. Could be some sort of filter for the hose appendage there. Time for a cavity search? Maybe not.

 

You really need to clean the insides well or that rust may get ingested. Rust is extremely abrasive.

 

Exactly, as the only air cleaners these trucks came with were oil baths.

OP is in CA and at one time, CA smog tested all 1950 and newer vehicles.

Since no vehicle prior to 1961 came with PCV, auto parts stores sold universal PCV kits, which the OP's truck had, based on the PCV hose on the air cleaner.

I had to buy one a these universal kits, install it on my 1950 Olds 88 Club Coupe. As soon as it passed the smog test, I took the damn thing off.

 

It looks like that is a different assembly than the stock air bath unit that was on my '52 215...
My base is open- the upper section had the steel wool filter and housing-
My base had been fixed poorly - it was cracked and leaked oil everywhere!
I removed the steel wool element and housing from the top of the assembly- used a cut off wheel and smoothed it off, then essentially had two empty halves of the housing.
As I'm a SAAB guy, I measured and found that an air filter from a SAAB 9-5 (1999-2009-that I had in stock) fit perfectly- and I cut the height of the top section to accommodate that filter. I used a K and N filter.
Do a search on this forum for similar fixes- https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...r-cleaner.html

 

I don't know if the dark side guys will give me cookies for this but I had a new paper filter in my junk box along with a hub cap I found, Ford mind you and I don't know what year but I came up with this.