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Building a mobile York compressor **DONE! Final movie on post 45**

Speaking of explosions........

I think I may see a couple of potential problems that might cause big trouble.

First, even though the motor may be small enough to stall before bad things happen, I personally would not get within a hundred yards of that thing under pressure unless there is a safety valve in the circuit somewhere.

I looked at the unloader, and did not see that function, but it might be there. Trust me, I have been in the area of one air tank explosion, and helped clean up after another one, and safety valves are necessary.

I had one of the little air pump and tank setups that they sell with air shocks under the hood of my old truck, and I added a safety valve to that one before I would run it.

Second, given the volume you seem to be getting, I wonder about the capacity of the unloader, especially with the muffler on the output.

If you have a gauge in the system, watch it carefully when the unloader is doing its job.
Particularly when the engine is revved up. If the unloader cannot dump air as fast as the compressor produces it, the pressure is going to creep up.
Which, of course, is where the aforementioned safety valve comes in.

Remember that compressor would normally see about 150# or so head pressure, but was rated to handle at least 300 briefly.
I dove out of the way just before a freon line let go at about 450# one time. That was either a York or an A6, don't remember which.

BTW, of the two compressor explosions, one had had the safety valve replaced with a pipe plug because it kept blowing off and "wasting air". Of course, the reason it was blowing off was because the cutoff switch was sticking and it was doing its job.

The other one, had a safety valve, and it had even been tested by me a few weeks before.
It was a used system, and I pulled the valve to make sure it was not frozen or stopped up.
What I did not know was, it was way too small for the compressor. Stupidly I assumed that since it had been on that tank for years, whoever put it on there had used the right size.
Instead, one big enough to handle the 90hp compressor was "too expensive", so they went smaller.
As a result, the tank literally went through the roof when the cutoff switch failed.

Thinking about it, were you looking at a gauge when the oil collector blew? If the unloader valve could not dump fast enough, you may have had more pressure on the system than 115# and it acted as a safety...........
 
There's a brand new 125psi pop open safety valve in the tank on the bottom. There's ports underneath you haven't seen in pictures yet. The gauge holds constant even under full throttle so I know that valve has no problem exhausting the output from the system. I bought it at a big compressor repair shop and explained my setup and the potential cfm output and they sized it accordingly.
 
I doubt anyone will be "carrying it around". Just the engine has enough weight then add the York and a couple tanks and it's no longer something you'll want to carry around. It is portable however and a couple wheels and a pull handle of some sort would be best.

I bet it's about 50 pounds or so. The only carrying I see is from the garage to the back of the truck before a Pismo trip. :)
I'll just get a long hose and leave it.
 
DONE!

It's not flashy, it leaks a little oil and it's noisy (I guess it's fitting for CK5) but it makes some good clean air!

So in the movie I start it up. Run the throttle up then engage the valve. It fills the tanks from empty then I hold an air nozzle wide open so you can see how well it keeps up with a continuous draw. I'm happy with it.

[youtube]ehsch-gWCqY[/youtube]
 
Mani would love to have portable air tools. I might have to look at the junkyard for one of those compressors
 
Yeah see if it'll keep up with a DA, never know when you'll need to do some quick auto body repair on the trail and spruce up a little rock rash...:thumb:
 
Whats the weight?

I keep figuring about 50 pounds or so. I should toss it on the bathroom scale and see. Doesn't matter much to me though, I can pick it up and move it easy enough and that's all I care about. :D
 
Super nice build! After dealing with these for a while, I have to say that your first hose, at the out-put will melt if you use the compressor for any tools. It has happened on at least 3 of the systems I have been around. The air just gets too hot from being compressed. I only mention this so you can be prepared for it. Its best to have copper line run.

Hope this helps.
 
Super nice build! After dealing with these for a while, I have to say that your first hose, at the out-put will melt if you use the compressor for any tools. It has happened on at least 3 of the systems I have been around. The air just gets too hot from being compressed. I only mention this so you can be prepared for it. Its best to have copper line run.

Hope this helps.

I discussed that with the shop making my hoses and they said under normal circumstances they would say no rubber out of a compressor head but after he saw my setup he said this would be fine. :dunno: I guess we'll see.
My problem now is oil bypass. I took it to Pismo and used it a couple times over New Years and it works awesome but I get a decent amount of oil in my oil extractor. I'm honestly contemplating pulling it apart and seeing if I can machine some spots for some extra piston rings to reduce bypass.
I also wondered about swapping the open oil bathed bearings on the crank for some sealed bearings but wasn't sure if they could handle the application. Not to mention how long it could run with no oil lubricating the cylinder walls.
 
If you search the interwebs, the oil misting issue is widely known. I don't know off hand of a good remedy.
 
If you search the interwebs, the oil misting issue is widely known. I don't know off hand of a good remedy.

Yeah that's where I found out about plugging that passage I pictured earlier. I think for how often I use it my remedy is to top the oil off before trips and let her eat. :)
 
I know you have seen the Kilby site, I saw a link earlier. They make parts and kits for what you are doing.
This is their "solution" to the oil problem.

http://www.kilbyenterprises.com/oil-return.htm

I swear somewhere years ago, I saw one of these projects, and they had some kind of fix for that.
Either an automatic dump valve that returned the oil when necessary, or a continuous bleed that trickled the oil back.

I do wonder what the oil did when it was used as an AC compressor. On most systems, the oil circulated through the system with the freon.
If the oil could not somehow return to the sump on a York, it would eventually all wind up in the lines and accumulator and burn up the bearings.

Since I don't remember seeing an oil return setup on an AC system, I guess that the oil mist just worked its way back past the rings as it came in through the intake.

Probably not an option for this. Maybe the manual return system will work for you.
 
Yeah I've looked at an oil return system but I'm not sure I want oil/water that's blowing by being dumped back into the reservoir. Oil is cheap is what I decided. :)
 
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