gas powered air compressors

[uao85]

Hey wondering if anybody out there has any information on how to convert an electric air compressor over to gas powered. Long story short got a big 80 gallon compressor that has a bad electric motor, and the replacement is 5x what I paid for the whole thing, plus being way the heck out in the country, my landlord is 80yo and wont be doing any wiring work anytime soon. Any advice?

Remington

 

[DEMON44]

all our service trucks have 9 or 11 hp (can't remember 'zactly) Honda powered 3 head compressors. to a remote tank. thats on the top of the truck. most gas powered I've seen, mount it on the side of the tank (tank laid over, not upright). and have a simple single shieve v-belt drive. to the compressor.

 

[Big Blzn]

I'd imagine you'd just have to build a bracket welded to the tank to be able to mount the engine. then run the v-belt from there. Seems like a bigger gas engine is going to cost an arm and a leg too.

 

[uao85]

Well the tank is a either a 60 or 80 gallon horizontal tank with a big c shaped plate across a good portion of the tank since the compressor is HUGE and was belt driven by a massive 3 phase motor. Also people on craigslist have gas motors and such going all the time for practically nothing, might even score a little onan diesel engine either gas or diesel will be in the 15hp range. I think I am going to give it a try, just found the unloader valve I will need in the pressure line from the compressor to the tank that is preset for 125-175 psi.

Remington

 

[Avery4jc]

The compressor at my house is an 80 gallon I bought off a guy locally a few years back. When the motor went out on it I searched around for a new one but found the same thing as you... a motor was going to be $400 or so which was more than I felt like paying to get it going again.
I ended up taking my old motor down to a shop that rebuilds them and they rebuilt it for about $100 and it runs like a brand new motor. Might try to find someone locally who rebuilds them and go that route.

 

[DEMON44]

for visual. heres my service truck gas air compressor. you can see the discharge is just a hose to a bulkhead fitting to a hose to the remote tank on the roof. see it doesn't have to be mounted on the tank.