I am starting to plan out an airride system for a 64' Caddy and I want to run a factory cadillac ac compressor. My car does not have ac now so I would not be taking away any features using this method (except a little hp). My question is if I get a reconditioned OEM ac compressor what else will I need to make this compressor run my system. For example will I need an new alt. pully, belt (of course)...does anyone know if the unit mounts directly to the intake manifold? Also to hide the unit completly I want to use two seperate 3 gallon tanks one tank for the front bags and one for the rear bags, do you think this will be enough reserve to raise the car in one shot. I would love to hear everyones opinion on how I should run the set up. I am pretty set in wanting to use the ac compressor, instead of electric compressors.
you need a MINIMUM of a 5 gallon tank (or 2- 2 1/2 gallon tanks). be sure that your compressor does not circulate the lubricant with the freeon (or whatever). i'm not sure when they started designing compressors that way but you might be ok with the 64 style compressor. look into it though before you blow up a pump. to counter this problem i've known people who have used an inline drip oiler to lube the compressor. just keep the resevoir full cause all that lube eventualy goes into your bags and then out into the air.
on a car as big as that caddy, i think that you'll find 6 gals of air is not enough. i'm running a 5 gallon tank on my 51 chevy, it is barely enough to lift both front and back to a high level, not quite enough to "lock up" all 4 corners, but enough to raise it to clear most obstacles. thet caddy will take a bit more pressure to lift than my chevy, so... most setups i've seen use York compressors, they are self oiling. no reason why you can't try the factory compressor with an oiler on the intake side like kustombuilder said. IMHO i think you'll get a long life out of it even with improper lube, the duty cycle of an AC compressor used as an air compressor is much less than its use for AC. on my girlfriends daily which has an engine driven compressor, it gets cycled on once a day at most, for about a minute.
Thanks for those links, I had read most of them but a few were new for me. Thank you guys for the tips, I will see if I can add bigger tanks some where else, I am trying to keep them out of the trunk. My next question was going to be if you guys thought that a 64' caddy compressor was lube through the coolant or if it was a closed system, so if anyone knows for sure one way or the other please chime in. Man I am really getting excited about this, I will do a little more researching but I like where this is going.
well after reading my manual I found that the ac does include oil in the coolant, so if I want to use the stock ac I will have to use an in line oiler on the in port and a coalescing filter on the out port. any opinions out there? So now I can decide if I want to do it that way or not.....hmmmmm
My 59 Nomad wagon has a TBI small block in it, and the stock a/c pump has been converted for the air ride. There's a oiler adapted onto the back of it. I have one 5-gal. tank. My wagon is a long, heavy car. And I can go up and down all day long. If the air goes low, the unit kicks on and only takes a minute to fill and shut-off. I had a 61 coupe deville with bags and it had a older T-bird a.c pump. Worked great too. My buddy's run vair pumps, and I wouldn't want that myself. I hear theirs, and makes me like mine even more.
if you want to hide more air tanks check out a mini truckin mag....they have tanks that take the place of your spare tire i know most people on here don't like the words mini truckin but they use alot of the same things as we do
I combined a few set ups that I found online does anyone see anything wrong with this set up, or anything I should change.
I would check with the airbag manufacturer and see if the bag can stand any oil. I know that on heavy trucks with air brakes getting oil through the lines to the brake diaphragms is a no-no, and that is why they have the "wet tank" and the "dry tank", so that the oil and water are removed before the air goes on out into the brake system.
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