The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Oil bath air cleaner refresh

Looking for input on replacement of cord type gasket / seal on underside of air cleaner lid and body on 3 piece (hd) oil bath air cleaner. (I.e. '59 261), not finding much info on it. Might lay a bead of rtv in the groove, let it skin over then place wax paper between things & lightly assemble.

BC,

Something like this???

https://www.steelerubber.com/air-cleaner-lid-gasket-20-2699-20

IIRC, "Steele" rubber products are some of the best available. Understood the link says for "ferd" applications, but it's cut-to-fit, glued in place, and should compress just fine for what you need.

Hope it's helpful.

I’ve tried half a dozen different things to solve this same issue on this same style air cleaner, none of them proving effective. I’ve cut strips of air cleaner foam. Tried various types of felt.

I will say that whatever you use, needs to be pretty compress-able. Too stiff and the air cleaner won’t sit down right.

My 3 piece oil bath has been converted to paper element and also has a terrible whistle at part throttle. I’m about to give up and put the smaller oil bath back on.

Tell people the whistle is the supercharger winding up.

Back to the original topic, I think making your own gasket out of RTV might be the ticket. When you say lightly assemble, you mean set it down in the carb to conform to the air horn?

If it's anything like the oil bath filter on my Cadillac, I think he's talking about the giant O-ring that goes around the perimeter of the air cleaner base on which the cover rests.

You might try making one out of soft rubber vacuum hose of the appropriate OD. It's hollow so it will compress.

Go to Home Depot or Lowes. They have tons of different types and sizes of hose for different applications.

Not a bad idea. It’d have to be quite small. I think I measured it as 1/8 inch or so where the original felt or rope used to sit.

Window washer fluid tubing is about an 1/8" -3/16"

Instead of wax ed paper, a trick I used to use to form parts or repairs from epoxy type resins was to wax the mating part. You can use butchers wax.

It's the upper seal, about 8" diameter. Have several carb to filter housing gaskets around so that's not an issue. Have several lids so I might try rtv on one of them.
Thanks for all the input.

If one piece has a thin edge, I'd get the smallest, softest rubber tubing I could find, then slit it with a knife from one end to the other. Put the slit over the thin edge and cut the tubing to length.

How about that rubber you use to hold the screen on a patio screen door, that you can buy at a hardware store? Just a thought.

Can you still get the carb to filter gasket? Or you have old ones?

Phak1 What is butchers wax?? Can't think of where a butcher would use wax !!

We used it to polish wood floors before they were coated with polyurethane. Like shoe polish without the dye.

There are kits available to make your own large diameter O-rings. They have lengths of various thickness rubber and the glue to connect them after you cut to the correct diameter. Here's an example:
Link A little pricey if you're just looking to make just one O-ring, however.

phak1 Oh it's a brand I see,just not seen it here,would be johnson around here. Thanks for the reply.

Yes, same stuff! I bet neutral shoe polish would work too!