Compressor help please.

[skyhighZJ]

My dad added an “aftercooler” on his upright air compressor to help cool the air prior to entering the tank. Now that he is actually putting it to work doing some body work on his ‘55 he is noticing the compressor getting hot and shutting down earlier than it previously had. He has had this setup about 20yrs and never an issue. Plenty of juice to the motor and has been religiously drained. He is in Northern Michigan so humidistat isn’t really and issue but the tank has been drained just the same. This has seemed to be an issue since he ran the after cooler. The pipe in the cooler is the same diameter as the original size from the compressor to tank so I’m not thinking a restriction issue. Any help would be great. He likes the concept of cooler air entering, thus, leaving the tank. But, not cool that it’s cutting out due to thermal issues with the compressor/ motor. I’m sure it’s something simple but what am I missing.

 

[fourtrax]

how does the pump oil look, how often is it changed. same with air filter. my old C&H pump just locked up on me last weekend and ordered an new one, fed-x tells me it will be here tomorrow.
check the wiring on the switch and the breaker a loose connection could cause some issues.

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[skyhighZJ]

how does the pump oil look, how often is it changed. same with air filter. my old C&H pump just locked up on me last weekend and ordered an new one, fed-x tells me it will be here tomorrow.
check the wiring on the switch and the breaker a loose connection could cause some issues.

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All checks out and it seems the cooler is what may be causing the issue but it just doesn’t seem to make sense as all it is doing is adding more pipe between the pump and tank so it’s just confusing.

 

[fourtrax]

the cooler should be fine. maybe some debris got into it. try taking the cooler output ( lower pipe off ) and see what sort of flow/pressure you get from it. and then you can do the same for the top. if you notice a difference then you might try back-flushing the cooler with air add see if anything come out it open input.

 

[shawn]

That's a whole lot of small hose that wasn't there before. The longer the hose, the greater the friction.

 

[Brud720]

Is that a filter right before the cooler? the bulb looking piece? If so its in the wrong location. Also the cooler tubing is smaller than the copper tube a restriction and as stated previous length adds to the woes of the pump.

 

[skyhighZJ]

@Brud720 the bulb is an adapter for the copper flare/ compression nut to AN for the rad. No restriction and the cooler is 1/2” pipe same as the copper tube and is what was the stock diameter before the change. @shawn do you think just adding that amount of pipe could case so much extra to cause a thermal situation with the pump given above info??


Edit: this wasn’t just a random thought to create. Dad followed someone who had done it in utoob and had good success.

 

[Ron]

Every inch of pipe adds head/restriction.
Every bend/90 adds head restriction. You could look it up but I bet each of those 180 bends is probably 3' pipe equivalent....meanign you've essentially added ~50' of pipe for the compressor to push the air to before it hits the tank.

Plus when the air cools in the "aftercooler" and the condensation point drops, you may be filling the coils partially with water and blowing against that as well.

In short the aftercooler is a bad idea as executed. If he feels it is necessary I'd add it on the output side of the tank - but I wouldn't.

 

[Croatan_Kid]

I'd consider that more of an intercooler, like on a diesel truck.

Ever notice they have pretty large inlets and outlets so they don't restrict flow and only have minimal pressure drop?

It's trying way too hard to shove (highly) compressed air through that thing and, thus, making a LOT more heat and restriction. The tubing needs to be bigger and have less turns. If anything, an inline heat sink style would work best, but it'd also work way better with air being pushed/pulled across it to help dissipate heat.

Something like this (in whatever size he needs) would be his best bet:

Amazon product ASIN B09MQH2Q7X

 

[WARRIORWELDING]

Picture added for giggles....best case dryer set up for small demands.
As Ron stated all industrial systems work in this fashion for optimized loads. Even the one I worked with dumped "raw condensate" prior to drying because it's the nature of the beast.
All other methods do some work but are less efficient in volume.
The easiest method is to replace the dryer in the picture with a simple media material canister and supplement it with gravity separators prior. Wich still require manual bulk draining.

 

[skyhighZJ]

To follow up. Dad took the after, inter, whatever cooler off and plumbed it back to stock. Drained the tank and did a full run up with no issues. Bummed cause it’s wasted money and was based off a reputable dood that recommended it. Live and learn I guess but more importantly he corrected the issue before he messed up his compressor.