AC pump to air compressor write up! (1 Viewer)

[BoostingLux]

Hi all, havent posted on here in a while as ive been busy building my new truck. 95 1kz surf!

Anyways to the point, i do alot of beach driving and general off roading and im constantly airing up or down my tyres. i got sick of waiting decades for puny little electric compressors to pump up my 33"s and i didnt much like the idea of spending $100s on a good electric compressor. so i decided to get serious about on board air (OBA).

There are a few threads on here discussing the matter but noone really answered many of the questions that people had, simply just telling them to "get a york compressor". What ive done is convert the standard AC pump on my 1kz-te into a very handy and capable OBA setup.

Heres basically what i did step by step. ill try get some photos up if people want. I cut both the aluminium hoses that feed into my ac pump. (!!!!DEGAS THE SYSTEM FIRST!!!!) and before u cut them unbolt them from the unit so all your metal shavings from the cutting dont fall down inside the pump. remove the rest of the unwanted pipe to your ac condenser (the radiator looking bit) and even the condenser itself if you want, as youll have no need for it now!

i then ran an air line from the engine bay underneath the truck and up thru a rubber bung in the back tray area to a 20L tank with an outlet and a gauge and a relief valve on it, that i bolted thru the floor. the tank is probably a bit large a smaller 10L would maybe be better and much faster to fill, but i had the old 20 laying round so i just used it.

I then flared the outlet side aluminium pipe to the compressor and attached the airline to it. you'll need to flare it and use a few good quality hose clamps as i had a some teething issues with the airline popping off the aluminium pipe when under pressure.

From what i gather if you dont add lubrication to the pump itll seize pritty quick due to heat , the standard refrigerant in the ac system would usually lube the pump. This is the area that usually gets people stumped. To add lubrication to the system, i re routed the oil blowby from the rocker cover into the inlet of the compressor with a piece of hose. i then blocked up the hole into the inlet prior to the turbo where the blowby usually went with a bung so no unfiltered air and other junk would get into it. i dont think your engine will like it much if u run the pump straight off the rocker cover blowby as itll create a vaccum thatll effectively suck the oil out the engine... so on the hose from the blowby to the pump i added a T piece and a small breather filter. This allows the pump to get oil from the natural engine blowby and clean filtered air from outside!

This pritty much sums it up! id love to hear any feedback or answer any questions or criticisms! ive had this running for about 4 months now and have had no problems exept for popping off airlines as mentioned earlier. i have the relief valve set on my tank to 100psi and it runs this no worries. i think standard AC pressure is up around 400psi! with the big tank it has enough kick to pop a tyre back onto the bead, somthing alot of electric compressors dont. Oh and as it has a factory electro magnetic clutch on the pump, it turns on and off with the standard AC button on my dash!! Good times! hope i helped somone!

 

[flash02]

After removing my old AC compressor I wondered if it could be used as an air pump, good idea on the lubrication problem, I guess that's what people use the York compressors, they have oil sumps. I'd love to do this but I use my AC and have no more room on my little 22RE to fit another.

 

[BoostingLux]

yeah the york pumps are ideal, but i didnt wanna spend any money ahha, the whole setup cost me about $50 , n that was just for the 10m air line, a tyre inflator with gauge, breather filter and all the fittings and hose clamps. so was quite cheap. and very easy, no messing around with belts and tentioners and mounts. i guess uve gotta weigh up which u want more, AC or air. i live in NZ and the summers get to around 30degreesC so not too hot, and i still have manual AC (windows) so air is more valuable to me then my ac. im sure if u got inventive with ur mounts u could fit another pump on there.

 

[BoostingLux]

UPDATE:

After using the pump on my last trip, the airline popped off again, so i went out and perchased a proper double barb ended fitting to join them, and this seems to have fixed the problem.

Also, my truck started to leak alot of oil, upon inspection it turns out the oil was coming from my dipstick O ring, and looking more into it it turns out my breather filter had become so full of oil it was no longer venting the crankcase pressure. after thinking about it for a while ive removed the breather filter i put and a pipe back down to the standard blow by inlet. this should mean that the engine will suck enough of the crank case pressure, but the pump will still get some oily air for the blow by, and filtered air back up thru the pipe from just before the turbo. will update to see if this works better, eg no huge oil leak haha

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

I was under the impression that the AC systems had a low pressure warning sensor that would not allow them to come on once degassed.... Did you by pass this? Cool idea on the oil, do you think there would be a difference in the amount of oil being blown to the compressor on a Diesel Vs. a Gas engine? Got any pics????

 

[BoostingLux]

ill put up some photos on here shortly, ive gotta take a load for my garage too for my new truck. umm i dont think it had low pressure sensor? my standard AC button on the dash stopped working the other day too, so i just installed another switch and hard wired it to the battery for the electro clutch. there is a weird vent thing on the side of my pump id forgotten about. it started bypassing the pressurized air out of the outlet line at one point.... dont know what its there for, but i just shoved a screw up it and its fine now? as long as the clutch engages theres no way it cant work, so if your truck does have a sensor u could just hard wire it to a 12v feed and install a switch? um and i think diesels have more blow by than gassers, but it all depends on your engine and the condition of your rings etc, i dont think the pump realy needs too much oil. and if u think about it, whilst its turned off and your driving around its still collecting some of the blowby in the pump like a catch can. so its never going to be dry i wouldnt think. hope this helped

 

[missouriman]

humm, what I thought about doing was running a very small copper tube from the de oiler (with a half oz of oil in it) back into the intake of the ac compressor. have a one way valve after the de oiler to the storage tank.

copper tube would be something like the tube to an oil pressure guage or old style temp gauge.

I sure would not want to risk it pumping all the oil out of my motor.

 

[BoostingLux]

that would work too, but its a bit of work, but would be good. im not sure what u mean by "pumping all the oil out your motor", if u mean the oil leak, ive fixed it by still running some blowby into the factory inlet. it was a minor teething problem really, in theory the breather filter SHOULD have been fine, but it got too blocked up... as soon as i replumbed it the leak stopped.

 

[jc43089]

https://forum.ih8mud.com/60-series-wagons/586422-c-compressor-board-air-writeup.html

Check this out. I did the same thing on my 60. Works great! Saved me the other day when one of my junk tires started leaking while out and about.

 

[BoostingLux]

!

nice write up. the only thing we really did different was i added the oil setup. good job!

 

[Airhorn guy]

Hi all, havent posted on here in a while as ive been busy building my new truck. 95 1kz surf!

Anyways to the point, i do alot of beach driving and general off roading and im constantly airing up or down my tyres. i got sick of waiting decades for puny little electric compressors to pump up my 33"s and i didnt much like the idea of spending $100s on a good electric compressor. so i decided to get serious about on board air (OBA).

There are a few threads on here discussing the matter but noone really answered many of the questions that people had, simply just telling them to "get a york compressor". What ive done is convert the standard AC pump on my 1kz-te into a very handy and capable OBA setup.

Heres basically what i did step by step. ill try get some photos up if people want. I cut both the aluminium hoses that feed into my ac pump. (!!!!DEGAS THE SYSTEM FIRST!!!!) and before u cut them unbolt them from the unit so all your metal shavings from the cutting dont fall down inside the pump. remove the rest of the unwanted pipe to your ac condenser (the radiator looking bit) and even the condenser itself if you want, as youll have no need for it now!

i then ran an air line from the engine bay underneath the truck and up thru a rubber bung in the back tray area to a 20L tank with an outlet and a gauge and a relief valve on it, that i bolted thru the floor. the tank is probably a bit large a smaller 10L would maybe be better and much faster to fill, but i had the old 20 laying round so i just used it.

I then flared the outlet side aluminium pipe to the compressor and attached the airline to it. you'll need to flare it and use a few good quality hose clamps as i had a some teething issues with the airline popping off the aluminium pipe when under pressure.

From what i gather if you dont add lubrication to the pump itll seize pritty quick due to heat , the standard refrigerant in the ac system would usually lube the pump. This is the area that usually gets people stumped. To add lubrication to the system, i re routed the oil blowby from the rocker cover into the inlet of the compressor with a piece of hose. i then blocked up the hole into the inlet prior to the turbo where the blowby usually went with a bung so no unfiltered air and other junk would get into it. i dont think your engine will like it much if u run the pump straight off the rocker cover blowby as itll create a vaccum thatll effectively suck the oil out the engine... so on the hose from the blowby to the pump i added a T piece and a small breather filter. This allows the pump to get oil from the natural engine blowby and clean filtered air from outside!

This pritty much sums it up! id love to hear any feedback or answer any questions or criticisms! ive had this running for about 4 months now and have had no problems exept for popping off airlines as mentioned earlier. i have the relief valve set on my tank to 100psi and it runs this no worries. i think standard AC pressure is up around 400psi! with the big tank it has enough kick to pop a tyre back onto the bead, somthing alot of electric compressors dont. Oh and as it has a factory electro magnetic clutch on the pump, it turns on and off with the standard AC button on my dash!! Good times! hope i helped somone!