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By glrbird - 13 Years Ago
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 Does anyone know why there are two different aircleaners on the E code t-birds? These are restored orgional cars and the upper photo is one I have not seen on a 57. I thought the smaller aircleaner was part of a dealer installed conversion Kit. 
Just wondered.
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By slumlord444 - 13 Years Ago
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The small one was for the 1956 dealer installed set up and supposedly some early '57's. The large one was for the '57's. No idea why Ford changed them. I have the large one on my '57 that I installed the E setup on in '66. I personaly like the small one better because you can see the carbs better. Small one uses 2 small air filters and the large one uses one large air filter.
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By Oldmics - 13 Years Ago
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The original 1956 Race Kit was offered in two versions.The B6A9000 B K3 used the large orange round air cleaner.The B6A9000 B K4 kit is believed to have included the oval style air cleaner. Pictured is an XE oval style on my car.   Then the ultra rare transistion from oval to round air cleaner.Strickly an XE unit. 
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By NoShortcuts - 13 Years Ago
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THANKS for the info. and pics Oldmics. INTERESTING! 
Regards,
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By slumlord444 - 13 Years Ago
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As to the question why they did this? Who knows! I am still trying to figure out why they ever made a .0425 oversized 312 piston. Ford, and most other manufacturers, did some strange things over the years.
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By glrbird - 13 Years Ago
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Oldmic Maybe they had more oval aircleaners than race kits and used them on the production line. Once saw a new engine from a late 80's merc that had different size rod bearings and journals on the crankshaft. Thanks for your info. Have you tried to put the orange unit on the bird to see if the hood will close?
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By slumlord444 - 13 Years Ago
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Don't see any way the orange one would clear the Bird hood. Doubt it would clear tha '57 Ford hood. Lot more room under the hood of a '56 Ford.
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By NoShortcuts - 13 Years Ago
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Going back to Gary's original question...
I think this is eBay number 390391248545 which is presently still active. Interestingly, since I first looked at this posting several days ago, the engine pictures have been removed. Hmmmm.... 
Assuming that it is a two owner car, it still could have shed its dual quad set-up a long time ago for any number of reasons. I suspect that many Ford dealerships had difficulty doing work on dual quad and supercharger equipped cars. Locally, I know of one 'F' 'Bird that a Ford dealership talked the former owner into converting to single quad because of 'problems that were too expensive to fix'. They did a thorough job of removing ALL the 'F' components in repairing the car for him! Too, if the dual quad set-up was not tuned properly, or was pushed when cold, it may have coughed resulting in a fire that caused damage to the carbs. Maybe somebody needed money along the way and sold the set-up because, 'it was a pain to keep running right anyway'.
Too, it may not be an 'E' car... that is the data plate and the frame numbers may not be the same. Right or wrong, 'E' 'Birds bring more than 'D's or 'C's. Whether it be a true 'E' or not, I suspect that the air cleaner housing is either '56 PowerPak or a reproduction of one. One reproduction of this style that I had an opportunity to inspect was a high quality stamped unit with an oval air filter element.
IF I owned an 'E' car and it was missing components, I believe that it would likely be well worth while to equip it properly for sale. While it might cost several thousand dollars today for original or reproduction parts to properly equip an 'E' car, everything else being the same, the 'E' will command a significantly higher price at sale than a 'C' or 'D' 'Bird.
Regarding data plate swaps, this same type of thing has been going on with Muscle Car clones . . .
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By Oldmics - 13 Years Ago
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The engine pics are still there.You have to go to the bottom page and click on Printer Version. That oval air cleaner on the "E" Bird for sale in the eBay auction is a repro.Take it from my experience in many years of looking at original and repro items-that oval is a repro. The mention of the repro oval unit housing a single oval filter-Those oval filters come from a Ford Lynx. Part of the "lure" surrounding the oval air cleaners is that the oval air cleaners were a better flowing device,hence the race application.Both the oval and the race kit air cleaners were the first use of a "dry" filter. Till this point all air filters were oil bath cleansing style. Supposedly the ovals were installed onto the early availiable 57 285 H.P engines as part of the package.I have spoken to several people claiming to have had the oval air filters installed on their factory 285 equipted engines in BOTH the passenger cars as well as the T Birds. Oldmics 56 Dual Quad T Bird 57 "E" Bird (currently undergoing restoration-just took body off the frame) 56 Power Pack Kit N.O.S. B6A9000 B K3 and a few more parts  glrbird-I have not tried it on any of my Birds-but I know the orange air filter will not fit
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By NoShortcuts - 13 Years Ago
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THANKS, Oldmics! Your posts are appreciated! I'm still learning, for sure! 
I continue to marvel at the quality of the contributors and their contributions to this site. The free sharing of information, experiences, and the time and effort expended to accomplish same is phenomenal in my view.
Regards,
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By famdoc3 - 13 Years Ago
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Lots of E set ups were removed along the way. They ran poorly in many applications and needed more maintenance then the modern square bore Holley which came on the D cars. I discovered part of the cure back in the early 70s was an MSD box. Cured the lag and burnt the excess fuel pretty well. Got my original air cleaner for 20 bucks back in 1972 (one of the few bargains I did take advantage of!). Still love the look of multiple carbs better than a single 4 barrel. MIKE
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By Oldmics - 13 Years Ago
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Also meant to add that both the 56 " race kit" air cleaner and the oval style were the earliest dry filters ever used. Up till these were produced it was all oil bath air cleaners. The 57 model year brought in the standard use of dry filters. Oldmics
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By EBird1 - 13 Years Ago
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I have a question along this same topic exept I and trying to find out if there were also different air cleaners between the T-Bird E-Code larger cleaner and the Passenger E-Code cleaner. Thanks for any help.
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By NoShortcuts - 13 Years Ago
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EBird1 (8/2/2012)
I have a question along this same topic. I and trying to find out if there were also different air cleaners between the T-Bird E-Code larger cleaner and the Passenger E-Code cleaner.
Thanks for any help.
Yes, the '57 Ford passenger car dual quad air cleaner housing and the Thunderbird dual quad air cleaner housing are significantly different. The carbs on the 'Bird were mounted backwards on the intake manifold when compared to the '57 passenger car dual quad or the '55 or '56 Ford/Mercury passenger car and 'Bird single quad Holley 4000 teapot applications. The mounting of the carbs backwards on the dual quad '57 'Birds was to provide needed hood clearance. The sheet metal air cleaner housings were significantly different in several ways. The 'domes' on the top of the 'Bird housing are higher than on the passenger car and positioned differently front to back. The air cleaner bases are different as well because the carb. openings are positioned differently on the piece front to back. Also, the two applications, from the factory, had two different height air filter elements because the housing height is different. -The passenger car takes the taller filter element. Again, we're just talking air cleaner housings, but there are other differences between the dual quad passenger car and 'Bird applications to include carb. to intake manifold spacers, throttle linkage, and fuel lines.
Hope this helps!
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By slumlord444 - 13 Years Ago
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As to the reason that so many of the E setups were removed back in the day because of drivability and maintenance problems, I have my own theory as to one of the problems. When I first put the E set up on my '57 in '65, I did not have the E carbs and rebuilt '56 Ford single 4 barrel carbs and jetted them per the spec's in the 1962 Hot Rod Magazine Ford Performance Manual. It ran great. In later years I came up with two different original E carb sets. Both sets had the jetting for the '56 single 4 barrel which was way too rich for the dual quad setup. I used the jets from my old carbs and it works fine. Primary's are the same as standard Holly jets and no problem to fine. The secondary tubes are tough to find. In '65 I took apart every Teapot Holley I could find and eventualy found 4 of the correct jets. Wish I could find some assorted sizes today!
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By EBird1 - 13 Years Ago
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Could anyone tell me the dimensional differences between an E-Code TBird and Passenger Car Air Cleaner. Thanks Dale
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By NoShortcuts - 13 Years Ago
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EBird1 (8/3/2012)
Could anyone tell me the dimensional differences between an E-Code TBird and Passenger Car Air Cleaner. Thanks
Dale
Welcome to the site, Dale. I'm sure many on this site would like to help you with the info. you seek. However, many, like myself, do not have one of each unit to reference. A '57 Ford passenger car dual quad air cleaner element went for $504 within the last week on eBay and it was NOT N.O.S.!
IF you are unable to get a response to your inquiry, I've got a friend who has both. I expect to visit him sometime in the next two weeks. He's several hours away from me... The number of dimensional differences are more than most would expect in my opinion. Email me if you want me to pursue this for you...
Regards,
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By EBird1 - 13 Years Ago
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Thanks for this information...It apperas I have a Passenger car Cleaner on a TBird... Any one like to trade?? Thanks Dale
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By Oldmics - 13 Years Ago
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I can get things started with a round T Bird style filter. I am out of passenger filters at the moment. These are measurement taken on the top section only.None of these measurements will include the bottom section. The heigth of the air filter element installed into the bottom section can and will determine the ultimte heigth of the entire assembly. 18 3/8 O.D.-measured at the bottom of the outermost flange Heigth is a bit tougher to measure since there are several "steps" of the filter top. Bottom to first step- 1.750 Bottom to second step - 2.00 Bottom to 3rd step - 2.400 Bottom to 4th step - 2.5 Dome heigth measured on the outside -highest point downwards to the 3rd step - 1.950- subtract .100 for measurement to 4th step on top of filter. Due to placement and pitch of each dome,this is a variable figure depending upon where the measurement is taken. 4.575 total heigth from bottom to top of front dome 4.475 total heigth from bottom to top of rear dome Dome heigth measured inside of air cleaner - 2.100 Rear dome is positioned with a slight tilt towards the rear-never noticed this before  The domes are the same heigth on both the passenger car aircleaner and a T Bird . The T Bird dome appears to be higher BUT that is because the filter can is LOWERED and thinner. This creates the illusion of a taller dome.Thus the T Bird requires a thinner (not as tall) air filter element. Hope this helps,Oldmics
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By Oldmics - 13 Years Ago
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No way will a passenger car air filter fit under a T Bird hood Or are we discussing air filter ELEMENTS ??????????????????? inside the filters. Oldmics
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By NoShortcuts - 13 Years Ago
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Oldmics (8/3/2012)
The height of the air filter element installed into the bottom section can and will determine the ultimate height of the entire assembly.
The domes are the same height on both the passenger car air cleaner and a T Bird .
The T Bird domes appear to be higher BUT that is because the filter can is LOWERED and thinner.
This creates the illusion of a taller dome. Thus the T Bird requires a thinner (not as tall) air filter element.
Hope this helps,Oldmics
Oldmics has helped me with numerous pieces of dual quad info in the past. I do not have a 'Bird and a passenger car dual quad air cleaner housing here to measure, but the domes on the 'Bird air cleaner housing definitely rise higher from the top housing surface than the domes on the passenger car unit. That's one of the ways to tell the applications apart!
I'll buy you a steak dinner if I'm wrong, John...
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By Oldmics - 13 Years Ago
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Medium rare-please. Oldmics
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By Ol Ford Guy - 13 Years Ago
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Does anyone have a Ford round element they can measure the height of? See my 8-1 post on an E Code Air Cleaner Element source. I found out that it is $10.00 less without the AC part number on it, which isn't important for Ford applications.
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