Any luck converting a/c to air compressor?

Can the A/C compressor provide enough volume and pressure to say, air up a tire in a reasonable amount of time? Maybe actuate an air locker? You'd have to put oil into the intake of the compressor to keep it chooching, maybe put an oil separator on the output or deal with oily high pressure air. Seems to me it might work. Any thoughts?

 

I havent done it, and there are probably cheaper/ easier ways to get OBA (arb air comoressors are pretty good and not TOO expensive) you're lookin at running a longer serpentine belt, running wires to the compressor clutch, and finding a way to mount it to the engine and run an air hose out to a place you can air your tires up with while also finding out how to keep the compressor lubricated. Difficult, but not impossible. I'm sure someone on here has done it. It has been done before, just not by me.

 

Not sure how well the stock compressor would keep up volume wise, as you're saying. But I know many folks installed York compressors onto their 80 series Cruiser to have OBA and it was successful.

 

A AC compressor is built for a closed system building a filter system to clean the incoming air enough could be expensive.

As mentioned keeping it lubricated as well add in a tank

The problem is the performance starts degrading the first few minutes you would get real good swapping compressors

 

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This would be how this would play out in real life. It would be almost impossible to keep the compressor lubricated and use it to build air at the same time.

 

the life of the compressor is the issue, it'll work, and they pump fairly well. As said prior, filtering incoming air and lubricating pump are the issues.

I helped build a similar system in a Suzuki Samurai 20ish years ago, worked well for the time it was on the vehicle.

Manually raise the idle up and it would respectably inflate tires pretty quickly, air tools needed a tank, but were very useable.

activate the compressor at road speed and a 5gal tank would fill in seconds ( not a good idea to do repeatedly )

biggest draw back was the heat build up of the compressor, even with an inline oiler in the intake tube the compressor still got very hot. Filtering the incoming air wasn't that difficult.

 

This is an interesting idea... an older piston type a/c compressor might work. If you can find a way to mount and belt it to the engine. When I was a kid ,my neighbor gave us an old piston refrigeration compressor that we mounted to a board and drove with a old washing machine motor. That compressor looked like a small engine and had its own crankcase/oil. It made enough air to inflate tires but the volume was low and it was oily air. I think volume would be a problem as well as the mechanical installation. A 12v electric compressor with an accumulator tank is the best way in the end probably

 

Using an ac compressor for oba isn't a new idea at all. Theyre not impossible to keep lubed and they tend to work well. The york style is the most popular. Combined with a tank you'll have no issues with airing up and even smaller air tools.

It's simpler and cheaper to go electric though. It's a popular swap on older jeeps. You need brackets and space to mount the compressor which isn't small, youll need extra idler pulleys and belts rerouted to run it and your other accesories.

Pick up an mv50 and your gtg for airing up. Combine with a tank and you've got small air tools. I ran a dedicated system in my sami, hardwired in with pressure switch so it turned on by itself.

 

Check out my build on converting the factory Denso A/C unit to OBA, starts on post #244
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/project-dbl-blk-◇-by-toyryd.357381/page-13#post-12769464

Post #250 shows the CFM calculations
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/project-dbl-blk-◇-by-toyryd.357381/page-13#post-12774626

 

Personally, I'd rather keep my functioning A/C, and use a purpose built Viair or ARB compressor/tank. Seems like a much simpler and reliable solution.

 

Just started going through your build man! Freaking awesome stuff!!! Just wanted to tell ya but heading back to finish it! I loved this pic

 

York A/C air compressor they can hold oil, they can be mounted on the rear end and turn off the driveshaft. I used to do this in the early days of airbags, now Oasis makes an onboard compressor with a starter and york compressor... needs a huge amount of amps to run and will screw the battery, fab a mount and pully for the driveshaft, I could make 250 psi in 10 minutes or less, or waste a grand buying an Oasis compressor. They were 500 back in the day now they are a G. The York compressor can be found in a junkyard for a couple dollars and get an air tank to store it with a line dryer, don’t forget a good ceramic check valve. I don’t have pics anymore I did this for fun when we still had film. I don’t drive lowriders anymore but it’s the trick to more air than you could shake a stick at.

 

Thanks! Been a long process with the build.