Early 1957 J-2 Oldsmobile. In mid-1957, the oil bath "batwing" was replaced with a round air cleaner with snorkels with a round paper filter (same filter as Chevy, Pontiac, and Cadillac) but different metal air cleaner. This air cleaner, in turn, replaced with a different round air cleaner with snorkels and paper filter in 1958. And to answer your question, no, MoPar did not use this style. Jon.
In the FWIW category, lots of the large air cleaners were trashed in favor of the small chrome individual ones back in the day. Too bad the owners did not do some testing. Modern testing has shown that the 3 factory small units on a Pontiac GTO do not have the air flow of the large Pontiac air cleaner from the same year. In fact, when the Super Duty Division of Pontiac was attempting to make a tripower run as well as a single 4-barrel (they couldn't!), they used a modified version of the large air cleaner removing the snorkles and adding additional holes in the side of the air cleaner. Since the Super Duty Division was interested in performance, not looks, the tripower (they even cast an aluminum intake manifold) was quickly deleted from Pontiac's race program. Due to the fact so many of the large air cleaners were trashed, the folks doing restorations are having to pay large dollars for these air cleaners. Jon.
Jon, I was unaware there were two versions of the round J2 air cleaners, late '57 and '58. What were the differences? I just picked one up off Craigslist and assumed it was a '58, now I wonder.. It has a slightly shorter forward snorkel than what I see in a common search result.
Paul - I do not have a picture of the late 1957. A picture of the 1958 may be found on this link to my website: https://www.thecarburetorshop.com/Tripower_air_cleaners.htm#Oldsmobile1553091 Jon.
Jon, Yes I've seen your pictures, thank you. My intake has dimples in the floor of the base, similar to the Chevrolet and a shorter forward snorkel than your '58 J2. Maybe I do have a late '57.. Interesting..
I see no derail if we learn something about different generations of parts. I do have a question though, was there a function to the dimples?
The first one pictured on E Bay was mine.. well I sold it for a friend in bad health... got $650 plus the $100 shipping. He also has a nice 58 paper air-filter style he wants to sell if anyone is interested. I was trying to get as much as possible for him to help pay health care bills.