Oil based air filter !!!!!!!

I've finally got round to thinking about an air filter change. I popped open the cover and didn't expect to see a weird holey thing with oil at the bottom. My car is a 1967 220. Can someone explain to me this weird anomaly and suggest how I change / clean it ? I'm sorry for the head scratching this may cause.

In the 1960's lots of air filters were like this. The bit with the oil in may come out of the housing, if so pull it out and pour the oil away. You should then find a load of s**t under where the oil was, wash it out, refill with clean engine oil, reassemble job done. Pookie

yep, just like an old series landrover, they work well in very dusty conditions .

Thanks so much, that seems remarkably easy to do and fairly inexpensive for once. Is this unusual for a 1967 Amazon to have this ? Does this mean I'm ready for the Paris - Dakar Rally ? ;-)

This wasn't the standard UK air filter system On '66/67 models but it might have been special order when new or added later. More likely the car was imported from somewhere like Cyprus where it would have been bought with the "Overseas" or "Tropical" spec. Do you have any early history of it? I had a twin carb B16 Amazon with an oil bath air filter and they can be found on single Zenith cars up to '64 but many have been changed to the "frying pan" type.