"Gettoest" onboard air setup

[joshoisasleep]

shipping will kill you though.

Yeah see, ain't gonna happen. Not on this continent. Don't forget the 1-2 month wait time for it to get here. If you were to count in the cost of accommodation staying in a major city waiting for such a thing to arrive, I think I can afford to buy several replacement AC pumps out of the many junked/parted out FJ62's in California on the way home.

With the oil separator though... if you had enough oil wouldn't it just circulate itself around and back through a short loop by its own pressure?

 

[joshoisasleep]

C02 is the bomb yo

I actually thought of using propane... heh. Too bad it's not stored at higher pressure

 

[cruiser88]

I actually thought of using propane... heh. Too bad it's not stored at higher pressure

You really need something with some power behind it

Welcome to Ultimate Air

Other than that this is the to roll


VIAIR - 12 volt and 24 volt Air Compressors

 

[sixty]

Yeah see, ain't gonna happen. Not on this continent. Don't forget the 1-2 month wait time for it to get here. If you were to count in the cost of accommodation staying in a major city waiting for such a thing to arrive, I think I can afford to buy several replacement AC pumps out of the many junked/parted out FJ62's in California on the way home.

With the oil separator though... if you had enough oil wouldn't it just circulate itself around and back through a short loop by its own pressure?

Shipping to 3rd world countries is no fun. I understand

You would need an oiler on the intake side and a seperator on the outlet side.It will last a long time like that.

I'd look for a york comressor from a junk yard (older volvo's, mercedes, and fords). have a bracket fabbed up and then all you need to worry about is keeping the sump full of oil. a little bit of oil is ok in your tires.

 

[sandcruiser]

The pressure switch is dead easy.
It'll have two spade terminals and a threaded connection (usually 1/4 npt).
You thread the connection into the high pressure side, anywhere.
It allows electricity to pass through the two terminals when the pressure is below a given point, stops electricity when the pressure is above a certain point.
Then look at your AC compressor- there is a clutch on the pulley and an obvious wire, right on top.
wire the switch in there. Doesn't matter if you wire to + or to ground.
Either way, it'll turn off the compressor when the given pressure is achieved which will help prevent blowing out seals and such on the compressor and is generally a good thing.

Any shop that sells air compressors should have a switch like this. A fairly common range would be on at 75 psi, off at 120. For example.

 

[sandcruiser]

Note: I still don't like the idea of sacrificing the AC pump to move air. But if you do it, at least do it right so that the air pump works.

You can bootyfab an air/oil seperator out of standard plumbing. You need the air to move vertically up a larger diameter pipe (1" or so should work). Add steel wool to the pipe to help trap the oil. Make sure that there is enough pipe below the air entrance so that oil can pool.
Occasionally drain oil and add to oil on the intake side.

If you add too much oil, you'll damage the seals. If you don't add enough, you'll seize the pump. After adding all this oil, you may not be able to clean it back out enough to have functional AC. I'd guess that any light oil should work? But others might offer better advice here.


And echoing Cruiser_guy: I very rarely and reluctantly leave my cruiser with local mechanics. I've got one guy that I really like, but still don't trust him- he'll do all manner of craziness if I don't watch him. Like do a knuckle rebuild, but re-use the trunion bearings because.... "Hey, they were in pretty good shape, probably have another 25,000Km left. " Great. Thanks, buddy.

But having said that: the air compressor on your truck is able to put out some serious pressure, especially if unchecked as to how high the pressure gets. It could damage itself, but more importantly, it could damage somebody nearby. A few tips:
1) Don't use PVC pipe anywhere in the system. If it blows, PVC shatters and sends shrapnel into you that an Xray can't find.
2) Avoid metal hose clamps on the free end of air hoses. I've seen a quick disconnect break free and the hose clamp on the end tore the crap out of the interior leather of the car. I imagine that it would damage human skin just as easily.
3) Just use some caution and don't look to the average local for "is this safe?" type instruction. "Safe" in Costa Rica is "this only goes wrong once in a while" vs. "Safe" in the USA is "this only goes wrong one time in a million". I could cite endless examples of the things done here that just aren't safe, yet happen daily.

 

[Tinker]

I scanned (i.e. didn't read) the above posts so flame me if I missed this obvious "ghetto solution": spark plug tire inflator.

JC Witless used to sell such a setup: you screw the adapter into a spark plug hole, attach the other end to your valve stem, & start the engine. Yeah, you get gasoline in your tire, but it's full!

Our SOB (South Of the Border) muchachos teach us that we Yankees take unimportant things much to seriously, like hygiene, traffic regulations, rule of law, etc.

 

[joshoisasleep]

I scanned (i.e. didn't read) the above posts so flame me if I missed this obvious "ghetto solution": spark plug tire inflator.

Well my truck's diesel so it doesn't have spark plugs, but I imagine you could do the same thing with a glow plug?? You'd also have the advantage then of not being a cylinder short. You're basically just filling your tire with exhaust though, right? Because of the higher compression of diesels, I imagine that it would work even better.

Anyone else have a take on this...?

 

[freds40]

I'd be leary of doing this with a diesel. The diesel could still have the explosion in the cylinder as it doesn't need a plug to light it. The diesel is using the pressure to ignite the explosion.
The idea "works" on a gas motor because when you remove the spark plug to insert your filler hose, you have then removed the ignition source.

BTW, if you're going to use your A/C pump for air, do it right. A pressure switch is extremely easy to plumb/wire. You have power in and power out and a feed line from the air system. Most are pre-regulated so just get one that turns on @ about 125 and off about 90 psi.

The power in comes from a 12v source and the power out goes to the compressor clutch. The switch will cycle the clutch depending on where the air pressure is.
Then just run an in line oiler on the compressor input and run a seperator on the output.

 

[joshoisasleep]

I'd be leary of doing this with a diesel. The diesel could still have the explosion in the cylinder as it doesn't need a plug to light it. The diesel is using the pressure to ignite the explosion.
The idea "works" on a gas motor because when you remove the spark plug to insert your filler hose, you have then removed the ignition source.

Allright, but if the "air compressor" glow plug also releases pressure to keep the compression in the cylinder below 280psi... say down at 200psi for safety, then that cylinder wouldn't be able to fire...right?

Besides... wouldn't the uhhh... explosion just pump up your tire faster?

 

[ntsqd]

Diesel engines ignite their air/fuel charges when the compression in the cylinder heats the air high enough to cause ignition when the fuel is injected. Glow plugs, in theory, are there to cause ignition when the engine is cold. If you have a way to turn off the fuel to that cylinder, then it would actually be better than a gasser with it's spark plug removed as there would be no fuel at all.

Another way to get OBA would be to drive the compressor of your choice off the PTO port if you have one. Look into locally sourcing the compressor for a large truck's air brake system.

 

[Randy88FJ62]

I scanned (i.e. didn't read) the above posts so flame me if I missed this obvious "ghetto solution": spark plug tire inflator.

JC Witless used to sell such a setup: you screw the adapter into a spark plug hole, attach the other end to your valve stem, & start the engine. Yeah, you get gasoline in your tire, but it's full!

Our SOB (South Of the Border) muchachos teach us that we Yankees take unimportant things much to seriously, like hygiene, traffic regulations, rule of law, etc.

I like this idea for gassers. It sounds like a nice emergency back up if you lost your compressor and you didn't have a hand pump. I'm tempted to find so called adapter and keep it in the Oh ***t box for bad days in the middle of nowhere. Thanks for the interesting idea.

 

[ntsqd]

I like this idea for gassers. It sounds like a nice emergency back up if you lost your compressor and you didn't have a hand pump. I'm tempted to find so called adapter and keep it in the Oh ***t box for bad days in the middle of nowhere. Thanks for the interesting idea.

The adapter that you're looking for comes as part of most screw-in type compression testers. Those usually have a normal air hose male part of the qick-connect on the other end. Just check that the hose you carry has the matching female fitting (or change something until they do match) and you're off and running.