Burning oil filler caps.

[GreeCguy]

How many of you are old enough to remember when the oil filler cap on your engine was filled with wire mesh and had vent holes on the bottom? Did anyone else ever clean theirs by filling them with gasoline and then setting them on fire, or am I the only one?

And lets not forget the oil bath air cleaners while we're at it. Anyone ever flame clean one of those?

 

[DrDusty86]

My Farmall H has an oil bath air cleaner. I'm thinking she's a 48' model. I love old iron. I'm 27 this year

 

[Chris142]

I've cleaned them but never lit one on fire. A few minutes in gas or solvent and an air hose is enough.

 

[morris]

and i thought i was the oldest guy here. i can remember when the price of gas was 1/3 of the octane.

 

[Lyman]

I had a 57 Chevy P/U with a 235. It had the oil bath air cleaner. I never set it on fire to clean it though. I swapped a 283 V-8 into it.

 

[UNC017]

My '66 has a mesh filled oil cap, but I just rinse it with solvent periodically. Why on earth would you light it on fire???

 

[Mystic]

Dang this brings back memories. I am glad you posted this. I remember the old oil bath air cleaners. My Dad's 1948 Chevy pickup truck had one I think and I remember one on my Dad's old 1952 Ford car. My Dad liked Chevy pickup trucks but he seemed to like Ford cars. I sort of remember maybe a wire mesh oil cap on his old 1963 Chevy pickup truck but I am not sure.

We never lit them on fire however. We just cleaned them out and put new motor oil in it.

 

[Garak]

I've dealt with both, but not with flames. My dad would just give me some gas and a stiff brush and send me at it.

 

[Rick in PA]

Had a '67 International Harvester Scout back in the late '70s. It had an oil-bath air cleaner but just a plain metal oil filler cap. Never heard of the flame cleaning trick. What a rough & ready ride that truck was. No power nothin'. Need a little extra omph for the steering? They gave you an extra large steering wheel. Oh, to be young again.

 

[andyd]

It was a common practice to remove the breather tube, dip it in the gas bucket used to clean small parts and set it alight to burn out the sludge on the old Chevvy 6

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: Rick in PA
Had a '67 International Harvester Scout back in the late '70s. It had an oil-bath air cleaner but just a plain metal oil filler cap. Never heard of the flame cleaning trick. What a rough & ready ride that truck was. No power nothin'. Need a little extra omph for the steering? They gave you an extra large steering wheel. Oh, to be young again.

my first real 4x4 was a 68 scout! Had to be moving to turn that thing.

 

[Propflux01]

I've had and worked on many VW Beetles with the oil bath cleaner. I always kinda liked them, they sure did trap alot of nasty. But I never heard of cap-burning.

 

[Fleetmon]

My '47 Farmall "A" has an oil-bath air cleaner....I just clean it with kerosene and blow-dry it. I clean the oil fill cap the same way.

 

[UNC017]

I still have a '49 Plymouth coupe with a flathead six and oil-bath aircleaner. I haven't fired it up in a decade, really should either restore it or sell... but I digress. You really can see how much dirt its been catching because it winds up in the "sump" of the cleaner. I'm sure its still nowhere near as effective as paper, but its clever.

 

[paulo57509]

My '63 Bonneville had the old steel wool breathers....two of them.

I used to rinse them out in solvent and let them drip dry. I'd fill them up with whatever clean engine oil (Pennzoil) that was laying around the shop and let them drain for a few hours on the bench then screw them on.

Did this at every oil change. Even with 3k OCI's, that Pennzoil would sludge them up every time.

I never lit them on fire.

 

[GreeCguy]

The idea behind lighting them on fire is to burn out all the oil and sludge which is holding the dirt in place. After you burn them and let them cool, you bang them on a chunk of wood or rap them against a fence post. All kinds of black junk will fall out, (especially if you haven't done it in a while). Be very careful to light the caps or cleaners well away from the gasoline soaking bucket. A burning bucket of gasoline, while pretty and exciting can turn into something scary rather quickly. Naturally, the fire cleaning method also burns off the paint on cap or cleaner - have a can of spray paint handy if you want to keep things looking pretty.

 

[mechanicx]

The oil fill cap was part of the crankcase ventilation. First it was the oil fill breather cap with a road draft tube. Then in the maybe mid 60's a positive crank venitilation was used with the oil fill breather. Then later in the 60's the the PCV was a closed system and the breather was filtered air the oil fill was sealing.