is the bottom part of it something special or is it like every other run of the mill cutlass/olds air cleaner?

 

69 442.

 

sweet, not some freaking too rare of a part then, expenses on this trip are looking up SLOWLY....

 

are you looking at one that tony has ?

 

Don't speak too quickly. Cheapest one I've seen recently was listed at $199.00. It's a one year only part. The 68's are similar, but have a different hole in the side for the PCV set up. I've heard it said that the 70-72 are slightly different as well, but I've not seen enough to verify that claim. The big issue is that the snorkel is wider than on a routine 4 barrel car, and much wider than on a 2 barrel car.

 

Just getting an idea of what I need/want to do with the beast right now. Thanks for the info guys.

 

@cameo: could you imagine if it was on the hurst olds only though...

 

Very True...

 

I've got an original 69 H/O air cleaner and an original 69 442 air cleaner. I too wondered about this larger snorkel thing I had heard about. Unless my measuring tape is off, I cannot find any difference in the snorkel inlet size from either air cleaner. Two barrel is narrower, but it appears the 442 and H/O snorkels are identical.

The original 69 H/O air cleaner has dual holes in the back for the breather grommet on either side. I'm not 100% sure on this, but if I remember right, the 69 442 air cleaner has a single breather hole. There was a bulliten about 69 H/O's ingesting water, so the dealer fix was to drill several holes along the base of the air cleaner bottom. This resulted in a lot of 69 H/O only cast iron manifolds having really rusty choke well areas.

70-72 ram air cleaner bases got smart, as they had pre-drilled or pre-punched holes in the base from the factory, as well as a drain hole (IIRC) for the end of the snorkel. I've got one of those somewhere but haven't looked in a while. They have dual breather holes as well. I had a 4 speed air cleaner and it too had the dual breather holes in the back, but no holes drilled in the bottom because it was not ram air. The 70-72 4 speed cast iron intakes had the PCV nipple next to the water outlet just like the 69 H/O. I'm not sure if the 70 442 non ram air cleaners had dual breather holes.

My 71 442 air cleaner has both breather holes as well, but the dual snorkel thing on that makes me count that whole air cleaner set up as a one off.

 

According to the assembly manual, even the cas without "dual ventilation" had both holes in the air cleaner base, with a plug inserted in one hole. But I've never looked at original cars to confirm this.

 

69HO43:
I could be wrong on the snorkel size issue. I haven't had a look at my car since winter started, so it is hard to say. There is a similar thread in the 442 section about the OAI base, and one of the pictures illustrates a snorkel difference.

This is the thead: https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...-oai-base.html

I would like to find a 69 H/O base, whichever it is. Mine has a dent in the bottom that didn't straighten too well. Interestingly (to me), whoever decided to drill the holes in mine to let water out (per the GM service bulletin) was lazy--instead of 5 evenly spaced holes, they did 1 and called it a day.

 

Sicky,
Here's a thread where the learned Wmachine enlightens me about the 69 air cleaners
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...-base-red.html

He REALLY knows his stuff

 

I'm not saying you're wrong on anything. I'm just saying I have a few bases laying around and depending on the year and application, there are a few differences, but also a few things the same. Don't feel bad, I got the one drill hole treatment on mine from some previous owner.

Ironically, my brother bought a 69 442 years ago. It was mostly original, but the PO took off the hood and put a ram air hood on it from a 70. In the trunk was the original air cleaner among other parts, and on the engine was the 70 OAI air cleaner. He was yanking the engine anyway, so he asked if I wanted them just to go ahead and take them! Whoosh...away they went.

Here's some pics of my 69 H/O air cleaner.

 

If I got time this weekend, I'll drag out that 70-72 OAI air cleaner and the 69 442 air cleaner and put a tape measure to them as well.