Early GTO Factory Air Cleaners

[60sStuff]

Below are the various types of Filters and Screens used on the 64-66 Tri-Power equipped GTO’s.

The OEM filter off the assembly line was a dark gray polyurethane foam that was supported by a round brass mesh screen.
I show the 3 Original support screens, plus 3 flame arresters.
A letter from Pontiac was sent out to the owners of 1966 GTO’s that had the A.I.R. (Smog) systems on their cars.
These cars had a tendency to have an engine backfire that may cause an under hood fire.
The dealer modification was a simple brass screen (flame arrester) that laid on top of the bottom base. This flame arrester is shown above in the MPC.
The dealers automatically fitted this flat screen on “all“ Tri-Power models whenever these cars came in for service as an extra precaution.

These foam filters have been reproduced as shown on the car.

[60sStuff]

Here are 2 NOS A193C foam filters sealed in a thick plastic bag inside the AC box.
Also a NOS A224C foam filter for the separate air cleaner for the smog pump.
The 1966 Owners Guide spells out cleaning instructions for the foam filters.

The A224C filter was a flat square perforated metal plate sandwiched in foam.
This filter slid inside the plastic AC canister. You can see the dirt inside the inlet side before the filter, then a cleaner air was pulled forward to the air pump.

Photo from a 60’s magazine test article.

[60sStuff]

Although the old Original first design foam filters are cool, they are a mess to maintain.

The foams were replaced soon after with the user friendly paper with wire mesh sandwiched by a durable rubber base.
There was no need for the round brass screen supports any longer.

The second design filter A220C had a ‘soldered’ mesh for support and is extremely hard to find. I have a boxed set of NOS 1967 filters.

Next up is the third and final design filter that uses a fine clean mesh with no solder. This filter is readily found today.