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.

Gary Ryan San Antonio.TX.

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.

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.

THANKS for the info. and pics Oldmics. INTERESTING!



Regards,

NoShortcuts
a.k.a. Charlie Brown
near Syracuse, New York

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.

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?

Gary Ryan San Antonio.TX.

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.

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 . . .

NoShortcuts
a.k.a. Charlie Brown
near Syracuse, New York

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

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,

NoShortcuts
a.k.a. Charlie Brown
near Syracuse, New York