I agree with all that you said. And mine are definately natural fibers of some sort. I guess the Catus fiber or the like. I have no idea how to cram them in there either but I think what ever I ended up with would be better than what it has in there now. But that does not mean that it would be great at filtering.
Also I saw some report on this site that showed oil batch was exellant at getting the big dirt and dust but poor at the fine particles as it can make the 180 turn and some gets thru the oil missed gause/fibers. Not that the fine particles would necessarily hurt my old motor but it makes you wonder. I do not run in heavy dirt areas so the smaller stuff is more likely what mine will have to deal with.
I hate to convert the oil bath to have a paper element but having a K&N filter in it might be easier for me to deal with and give more piece of mind when I am out and the truck will not start and have to pull the air cleaner off to squirt in starting fluid or unstick the choke or something or check for proper pump action. In those cases having to pull off the whole oil bath and lay it on the ground is a pain. If I just had the K&N I could take off the top center part and squirt some starting fluid in. But for the rest of the checks I would still need to remove the whole air cleaner. Maybe it sould not be any easier but I would not have to worry about spilling oil on a hot engine on on me.
I looked at some Copper Chore Boys at a store today. They are like brillo pads but have no cleanser in them and are rectangular but are plyable. A bunch of those crammed up in there might work. I think I read that someone on this form has already used them before. They seem to be about the right thickness of filiment. Might be a bit thick but might be OK.
I would be concerned that when sticking them up in there that there may be a void (air gap) somewhere that you do not see and the air and dirt would just fly up thru there. So again a K&N and a modified oil bath air cleaner might be the way to go.
I did some more checking and I think the closest fitting K&N might be a E-3344 6.25 OD, 5.25 ID and 4 inches tall. It may sit a bit too low for me. I might need a ring of foam on top or bottom to get it up a 1/4 inch to make sure that there is a gap for air to come in at the top of the cleaner like there is as a oil bath filter.
To but the K&N in I would have to cut my bottom of the inside center element holder off. The bottom 1 inch would have to go. THen remove the fiber and the whole center so it just has a shell to ack as the lid for the K&N.
I saw some 57 chevy cars that have the extra cap on top of the cleaner just remove the center piece altogether and install a canaster filter and the top lid and they are done. Here is an example but it would not work for my cleaner as I do not have the top cover:
Chevy Oil Bath Element Air Filter, 1957-1958 if you have a top lid See the instructions here:
installation instructions for cars Not real sure what I will do yet. I would hate to buy the K&N for 30-45 dollars and shipping and have it not fit after ruining my oil bath to try it.
I tried making a test templet out of paper and seeing how it might fit, it is close. But I am not sure about the top lid fitment until I would gut it.
The base needs to be about 5 inches ID to get to the relatively flat part of the base of the oil bath. But the OD neeeds to be like 6.5 or less or there will be no space for air to go up and in the filter. You could always cut more of the inside oil bath cover off like trim up the side until you get to the painted part.
I still have not decided what to do.
