Oiling an Air Filter

Old Fogey UK

Here's something that's troubled me for years.

The owners' book for my 1934 Eight says to dip the filter element in oil and to drain the excess off before putting the filter back on the carburettor.

What I can't understand is how to get the wire mesh element out of the filter can.

There seems to be no way of doing that on mine.

So, I've been upending the filter and dipping the whole thing in oil up to the point where the whole element is below the surface of the oil.

Even allowing for the excess to drain off, it's an extremely messy process and even after draining and reinstallation, oil weeps all over the filter and down onto the carburettor and manifolds.

This can't be the right way to do it, can it ?

Rocket

First of all dose your air cleanner mount on the top of carburettor with a screw on the bottom you tighten up to hold it to the top of the carb or do you have a threaded rod that is attached to the top of the carb and goes thruogh the whole filter to the top and you put a wing nut on to hold it in place now this is what my brother did to his 1935 studabaker filter he was doing the same thing you were doing and it always made a big mess on his motor and also our dads garage floor witched did not make our dad happy our dad was a big rig parts guy all his life and he came out one day and asked my brother why he was putting oil in his filter and my brother told him that is what the book said to do our dad told him to through the book away because back in the day the cars had oil bath filters because we did not have many payved roads most of them were just dusty dirt roads and the oil bath filter was to help keep the dust and dirt out of the crank case and now days we seldon drive on dirt roads so he told my brother to get a good paper filter and stop using oil to change this my brother took his air cleaner and cut it in a way to take out the mesh filter and he found a paper filter that fit just right then he made a bracket for inside the air cleaner with a threaded rod that came up through the top of the air cleaner and put a wing nut on it to hold the two halfs together that way when ever he had to change filters all he had to do was unsrew thr wing nut lift the top off the air cleaner and changed filters he never had another mess from oil thanks to our dad sorry if this is so long of an answer but I feel I owe my dad a lot for the things he taught us.

Old Fogey UK

Thanks for the advice.
As we now all run on tarmac surfaced roads rather than dusty unsurfaced ones, do I need to oil the filter at all ?
I tried a modern K & N air filter but it was noisy and the car just didn't seem to run as sweetly with it.

Rocket

Could you post some pictures of your air cleaner I have some ideas of what you can do but I would like to see some pictures so I know I am on the right track before I tell you something that will not work also you said you have tried a modern filter how did this attach to your carb please let me know anyway I hope to here from you soon.
PS HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

Old Fogey UK

Rocket said:

Could you post some pictures of your air cleaner I have some ideas of what you can do but I would like to see some pictures so I know I am on the right track before I tell you something that will not work also you said you have tried a modern filter how did this attach to your carb please let me know anyway I hope to here from you soon.
PS HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

Thank you very much.
I'll post some pics of it soon.

Old Fogey UK

Here are some pics of my air filter. It's impossible to remove the gauze from inside the filter casing. Only the lid and felt pad come off when the wingnut is undone.

I showed it to an 83 year old retired car mechanic on Saturday who remembered this type of filter and said you have to take the lid and pad off, invert the filter casing and wash the whole thing in gasoline and blow it dry with an air line. Then dip it in engine oil until the gauze is covered, let it drain and wipe it off before turning it the right way up and re-installing.

He also said that back in the day, they used to burn the gasoline off the filter by setting it on fire rather than using an air line. I don't think I'll try that !

Does all this sound right ?

Rocket

Thank you so much they say a picture is worth a thousnd words and your pictures say it all and doing what I am about to tell you will not only work great it will cost very little to get done now onto a way that is not only a cheap fix but will also work graet for keeping unwanted things out (dust dirt etc. out of your motor) any way when you go to a car show and you want your hood up so people can see your motor you can remove this in just seconds and put it back on when you are ready to go home so here is all sorry to take so long to get to this but when I saw your pictures it reminded me of something we did at work so we had a ten gallon wet vac vacuum cleaner (it has to be a wet vac because the dry vac dose not use the same filter system) if you go down to your local hardware shop and look at a wet vac you will see it has a two part filter one part is a paper filter and the second part is a type of breathable foam rubber that goes over the paper filter this second part is the part that you want to leave your filter just the way it is with the gauze in it and then get your hands on the second part of the wet vac filter and trim it so it will cover the holes in the upper part of your filter this second filter should be all you need and you can replace when ever you need to (the second filter acks like a rubber binder and will streach over the top of your air cleaner and should stay in place until you need to replace it you should not need any thing else to hold it on) good by oil  let me know how you make out Tom.

Old Fogey UK

Thank you, Tom, that's an interesting solution.
I'll be visiting a hardware store later this week and I will check out those foam rubber filters.

Rocket

If you can not find one let me know I think I can get these from granger the place were we get them for work.

Jon B

Hi, Fogey:  I'm a bit confused as to what the problem is. 

You say it's  messy process and I agree wholeheartedly: cleaning out the filer element with a solvent, drying it, then adding 50w oil and allowing that to drain, before re-installing the filter element.

But, you say it's difficult to get the wire mesh element out of the "filter can".  In my car (a '37), you unscrew the wing not on top, remove the round lid.  Then you should be able to easily lift the filter element out of the silencer housing.  (I define the "filter element" as the donut shaped ring that consists of a copper or brass mesh held in place by an inner and outer ring of stamped steel sheet metal.)  My element looks ike this:



Is that not the case in your air cleaner?

You say that after filter re-installation, "oil weeps all over the filter and down onto the carburettor and manifolds."  I've never had that happen, because in my air cleaner / silencer the donut shaped element sits down into a circular trough.  Any oil simply runs down into the trough and can be cleaned out at any time.

Does your air cleaner / silencer not have that trough?  If not, are you sure that you have the correct silencer and that some previous owner didn't install a different one?   Of course, it's possible that Hudson didn't have that trough in 1934 but introduced it later in the decade.

Certainly, Rocket's suggestion results in a procedure that's much less messy, so I'm not arguing with that!   I just wanted to correctly understand your situation.  

Old Fogey UK

i Jon B said:

Hi, Fogey:  I'm a bit confused as to what the problem is. 

You say it's  messy process and I agree wholeheartedly: cleaning out the filer element with a solvent, drying it, then adding 50w oil and allowing that to drain, before re-installing the filter element.

But, you say it's difficult to get the wire mesh element out of the "filter can".  In my car (a '37), you unscrew the wing not on top, remove the round lid.  Then you should be able to easily lift the filter element out of the silencer housing.  (I define the "filter element" as the donut shaped ring that consists of a copper or brass mesh held in place by an inner and outer ring of stamped steel sheet metal.)  My element looks ike this:



Is that not the case in your air cleaner?

You say that after filter re-installation, "oil weeps all over the filter and down onto the carburettor and manifolds."  I've never had that happen, because in my air cleaner / silencer the donut shaped element sits down into a circular trough.  Any oil simply runs down into the trough and can be cleaned out at any time.

Does your air cleaner / silencer not have that trough?  If not, are you sure that you have the correct silencer and that some previous owner didn't install a different one?   Of course, it's possible that Hudson didn't have that trough in 1934 but introduced it later in the decade.

Certainly, Rocket's suggestion results in a procedure that's much less messy, so I'm not arguing with that!   I just wanted to correctly understand your situation.  

Hi Jon,
the element won't come out of mine.
I'll take the lid off tomorrow and take a pic to show you what I mean.
 Cheers,
David.

JohnGooderham

I cleaned the air filter on my 1938 Hudson 112 the day before yesterday in the way described in the owners' handbook, including using gas/petrol to clean it.  I then dipped in oil, drained, and replaced.  There's quite a bit of oil left in the trough.  Should I remove that excess, please? 

barrysweet52

1934 to 1936 Hudsons - motorbike air filters can be used instead of the oil baths. All hidden. 

1937 Hudson and possibly other years. The Redline sports filter is a very easy fit for approx $50, but not hidden if you want to keep an original appearance. The chromed lid can be painted black if you wish and the concave lid is easy to hand push to be convex, as shown in the photo.