"Commando" Air Cleaner idenification ?

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toolmanmike said:
Dang Keith, I thought this was it but may be not. Differences between 273 Commando Silenced Air Cleaners?
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Yeah I can’t seem to find it, it’s possible it got deleted. Makes me sad about all the cool stuff over the years that has disappeared from this site. I had pictures of the chrome air cleaner along side of a new old stock black painted one, I showed the differences, along with measurements too I believe. The chrome air cleaner has a slight curve at the base where the black painted ones have a lip that is more like a seam or folded over. Most people would never notice these differences, but they are nice when they could be pointed out, just like the differences in all the 273 commando valve covers, many people don’t know the difference.
 
66340SEDAN said:
Yeah I can’t seem to find it, it’s possible it got deleted. Makes me sad about all the cool stuff over the years that has disappeared from this site. I had pictures of the chrome air cleaner along side of a new old stock black painted one, I showed the differences, along with measurements too I believe. The chrome air cleaner has a slight curve at the base where the black painted ones have a lip that is more like a seam or folded over. Most people would never notice these differences, but they are nice when they could be pointed out, just like the differences in all the 273 commando valve covers, many people don’t know the difference.
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I'll be on the lookout now. Thanks.
 
Non CAP Slant lid from 1963-64
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That don’t look too bad...if it were up to me I would remove that from the air cleaner and just turn it so the holes faces to the back. The base is aftermarket but if it works nobody would know or see it.
 
66340SEDAN said:
Yeah I can’t seem to find it, it’s possible it got deleted. Makes me sad about all the cool stuff over the years that has disappeared from this site. I had pictures of the chrome air cleaner along side of a new old stock black painted one, I showed the differences, along with measurements too I believe. The chrome air cleaner has a slight curve at the base where the black painted ones have a lip that is more like a seam or folded over. Most people would never notice these differences, but they are nice when they could be pointed out, just like the differences in all the 273 commando valve covers, many people don’t know the difference.
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I think this is incorrect. I have a picture of the original air cleaner (now long gone, thanks to my Dad) that came with my 65 Barracuda Commando 273, and I have two other tops that I've rechromed,
that originally were on slant sixes. Plus I have one more black-painted black top that has the smog tube. These are all 11 inches in diameter, and use a ten inch filter. The lower lip of all look the same to me.

Now, there was another air cleaner top used on most slant sixes which does have a different lower lip, but it is also noticeably smaller in diameter. I no longer have one, but it's at least an inch smaller in diameter, maybe two. If you still have pix that show a difference in the lower lip of the larger air cleaner, I'd like to see them.

Last, as someone else noted, the eleven inch air cleaner was also used on some .early sixties 361 and 383 4-barrel motors that didn't have silenced air cleaners with a snorkel (some had silenced air cleaners, some didn't).

In the pix below are the original air cleaner on my Commando 273; a chromed slant six air cleaner top on my 56 Plymouth 277 poly (with an aftermarket 10 inch air filter bottom to fit the Edelbrock carb); identical top (with Commando 273 bottom plate) on my early AFB four-barrel equipped slant six; and the small slant six air cleaner I used to run on my flathead six before converting to dual carbs.

Commando2731969.jpg
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There are /6 tops that look the same but are smaller. The key to finding a usable top is the 11 inch ID. They came on early 4 barrel big blocks, /6 in the early to mid 60's and 273 2 barrels in 66. Where is a good place to have them chromed? About how much?
 
65 Cuda 340 said:
I think this is incorrect. I have a picture of the original air cleaner (now long gone, thanks to my Dad) that came with my 65 Barracuda Commando 273, and I have two other tops that I've rechromed,
that originally were on slant sixes. Plus I have one more black-painted black top that has the smog tube. These are all 11 inches in diameter, and use a ten inch filter. The lower lip of all look the same to me.

Now, there was another air cleaner top used on most slant sixes which does have a different lower lip, but it is also noticeably smaller in diameter. I no longer have one, but it's at least an inch smaller in diameter, maybe two. If you still have pix that show a difference in the lower lip of the larger air cleaner, I'd like to see them.

Last, as someone else noted, the eleven inch air cleaner was also used on some .early sixties 361 and 383 4-barrel motors that didn't have silenced air cleaners with a snorkel (some had silenced air cleaners, some didn't).

In the pix below are the original air cleaner on my Commando 273; a chromed slant six air cleaner top on my 56 Plymouth 277 poly (with an aftermarket 10 inch air filter bottom to fit the Edelbrock carb); identical top (with Commando 273 bottom plate) on my early AFB four-barrel equipped slant six; and the small slant six air cleaner I used to run on my flathead six before converting to dual carbs.

View attachment 1715509918 View attachment 1715509921

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It’s correct....I documented them with pictures and it shows the small differences....I had a new old stock painted one and a factory chrome one, also a super 225 lid....they are different if you are looking to be 100% correct....

I sold the NOS one to another member here 65dartcharger Ulf, maybe he has pictures yet
 
OK, since I haven't possessed or even seen my original 273 air cleaner since 1973, I can't conclusively rebut your theory, but I find it difficult to believe Chrysler would have changed a fairly common stamping just for a small run of hi-po 273 air cleaners. Now, it's possible that there was more than one supplier of these air cleaners and that there are subtle differences between the product of one supplier vs. the other without regard to whether the air cleaner is chromed or not. And I suppose it's also possible that a change in suppliers coincided with the commencement of hi-po 273 air cleaner production, so that all chrome air cleaners are subtly different from all black-painted ones. Still, looking at my pix and also pix of a couple of hi-po 273 air cleaners being offered right now on ebay, I'm damned if I can see a difference in the bottom lip. I still would like to see your pix, though. I've been messing with this stuff for decades, but every now and then I find that what I thought was fact - isn't.
 
Since you have piqued my interest, I had to go out an closely inspect the three air cleaners I have. Noticed for the first time that one of the three definitely has a bigger bottom lip than the other two. Two of them are chromed now, but all three were originally painted black. Tried to take a picture of the difference, not sure how well it shows. Is this the difference you were talking about 66340sedan?

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65 Cuda 340 said:
Since you have piqued my interest, I had to go out an closely inspect the three air cleaners I have. Noticed for the first time that one of the three definitely has a bigger bottom lip than the other two. Two of them are chromed now, but all three were originally painted black. Tried to take a picture of the difference, not sure how well it shows. Is this the difference you were talking about 66340sedan?

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Very interesting. Too bad there isn't some number stampings or tags somewhere. I wonder if there were different vendors as mentioned earlier?
 
65 Cuda 340 said:
Since you have piqued my interest, I had to go out an closely inspect the three air cleaners I have. Noticed for the first time that one of the three definitely has a bigger bottom lip than the other two. Two of them are chromed now, but all three were originally painted black. Tried to take a picture of the difference, not sure how well it shows. Is this the difference you were talking about 66340sedan?

View attachment 1715510164

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I would assume these are trimmed after they were stamped. In my opinion that is well within the range you probably would see in a run, I doubt it was anything else.


Alan
 
I’ll look to see if I can find my info again and if I have another air cleaner to compare
 
I have a large number of both original 273 HP and the painted ones from the different engines. I'll dig some out and take pictures.
 
66fs said:
I have a large number of both original 273 HP and the painted ones from the different engines. I'll dig some out and take pictures.
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I think I have 2. LOL That's a large number for me.
 
66fs said:
I'd hate to say how many I have, probably close to a dozen. When I bought them they were still reasonable and were collected over decades. Will try and dig them out today.
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I'd love to see your collection. I have 2 pairs of valve covers I think. Same thing there, pick up a set when they are reasonable.
 
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