Heinz Sewing    Posted 07-29-2001 at 17:49:35        
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I read in an old farm magazine some years back, where this farmer converted an old car engine to an air compressor by attaching a pto shaft to the crankshaft and removing the spark plugs. I have forgotten what kind of check valve he had in place of the spark plugs to keep the newly compressed air from returning back into the cylinder. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks, Old man 57 

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Burrhead    Posted 07-29-2001 at 18:28:50        
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Around here they call them Schrader valves.
You take the tappet off of the exhaust valves and leave the valve and spring intact. Leave the intake valve tappet alone so it will suck in air. That way it pumps air on the compression and exhaust stroke both.

The way we did it a 4 cylinder datsun engine will fill a 200 gal tank to 150psi in just a few minutes with the pto in high range and the engine at idle. We did'nt put any kind of pressure govornor on it. What we put was a safety pop off valve from a big truck air system on it to keep it at 150 psi. When it hits 150 the safety buzzes the pressure down to about 140 psi but with that kind of volume of air and a 1" air line it will run jack hammers and 1" air reachets with ease all day long.

We left the radiator on the datsun so as to keep the compressor cool and filled it with hydraulic oil instead of water so it won't freeze in the winter, we put 80W gear oil in the datsun engine and the datsun turns backwards to a pto so it had to have the pto shaft run to the flywheel end so it would turn the datsun the right way

Just be sure and remember to use copper or steel tubing to build your air manifold to the tank because any of the plastc high temp will still melt down.

Hope this helps and good luck. Jerry