JBNeal

After I got the engine running on my '48 back in '95, I heard about Hemmings Motor News, found a reproduction shop manual, stuck a check in the mail and 6-10 weeks later got some highly informative reading in a brown paper wrapper.  I've amassed a small collection of Service Reference Manuals featuring Tech the trainer; they're entertaining to read, full of useful information, including service charts, exploded views, and allll kinds of diagrams.  I've also collected a few sales brochures from back in the day...pictured in the corner of a B-2 brochure is a small black & white picture/sketch of a Spring Special...others have cutaway views of cabs, motors, transmissions, axles...GOOD STUFF 

In 10 yrs, I put 10k on the odometer on my '48 B1B...recently I emptied the original oil bath air cleaner and put the oil in a glass pickle jar to observe what might be floating in there.  The oil was a little darker than fresh oil, and there was some crud at the bottom of the oil bath, but that was it.  And I drive on a fair share of dusty back roads and cattle pastures.  On a couple of occasions, I misjudged the pasture I was driving thru & caught a li'l air, so the oil bath sloshed a tad, and on one occasion, I forgot to tighten the ring clamp and that first right turn spilled most of the contents onto the engine.  I like the idea of the paper element conversion cuz it would not have been as messy as these spills, but I'm gonna stick with the oil baths on the flatheads...I've even got a conversion I'm testing that routes PCV gases into the original oil bath air cleaner housing