Brahma On-Board Air

[subzali]

Not necessarily, with a relay you can tap just about any existing hot or ignition-on circuit for the control side. It's very low current. You hang a fuse from the battery to the relay high side, put the relay right by the battery and a decent wire to the clutch....

That's pretty much the same thing as I was talking about, I think.

If yo uare going ot use a dash circuit, you should use a relay......

Okay, y'all have convinced me. Should be easy enough.

Or........you know you will need it anyway.....go ahead and put in a accesory fuse box now! That way your rock lights, air comp, fridge and LED array are taken care of!

:evilgrin:

I have an accessory fuse block that I installed a while back. Not the best solution, but not horrible for now and no worse than my factory fuse block. All that wiring needs to be cleaned up one of these days too.

Today I spent my last big chunk of change: $50.61 on the 3/8" Viair leader hose with integrated check valve (24" long), and a Viair 110-145 psi pressure switch. Maybe I should have gotten the 90-120 psi switch. I dunno.

Running Total: $287.53

 

[Uncle Ben]

Today I spent my last big chunk of change: $50.61 on the 3/8" Viair leader hose with integrated check valve (24" long), and a Viair 110-145 psi pressure switch. Maybe I should have gotten the 90-120 psi switch. I dunno.

Running Total: $287.53

It does add up quick! I used to run higher pressure in my system but found it doesn't affect the performance much by dropping it down but it does seem to have less leaks and hose failures at lower pressure.

 

[subzali]

Another $8.08 to O'Reilly for a 30A relay and 2' of 5/8" ID hose...
And $7.52 for two 1/2" FNPT by 5/8" hose barb adapters...one for the inlet filter and one for the suction side of the compressor...

Running Total: $303.13 ouch broke the $300 barrier...slowing down though.

Also called up 4WheelParts and asked if they could swap me the 110/145 p/s for a 90/120. Should come early next week.

 

[rover67]

good call on the pressure reduction. I agree with UB, I really saw little advantage to running higher pressure.

 

[subzali]

Getting some things done while I'm waiting for my parts to come in.

I've been fabricating a bracket to hold my inlet air filter on my air cleaner, I'll post some pictures of it later when it's done. Also need to come up with a bracket to hold my air manifold and relay, I think I have some ideas on that that I'll hopefully be able to work on tomorrow. Hopefully I won't hit a snag and can keep steaming along until it's done.

I assembled as many of the inlet and outlet fittings as I could.

On the inlet, I have my 5/8" SAE-5/8" SAE swivel fitting, 5/8" SAE-1/2" MNPT 90 degree elbow, and 1/2" FNPT-5/8" barb all connected and ready to go.

On the outlet, I have my 1/2" SAE-1/2" SAE swivel fitting, 1/2" SAE-3/8" MNPT 90 degree elbow, 3/8"-3/8" coupling, and 3/8" Viair leader hose with integrated check valve all connected and ready to go (NOTE THAT THE CHECK VALVE IS BACKWARDS IN THIS PHOTO):

I'll get some pictures of them mounted in the engine bay later.

 

[60wag]

Nice. Is that a check valve or an unloader?

 

[subzali]

It's a check valve, integral with the Viair leader hose (BUT MOUNTED BACKWARDS IN THE PHOTO ABOVE). I think I'm going to put a ball valve on the manifold to let off pressure manually, but between cycles the compressor will just have to start up against pressure.

 

[Uncle Ben]

It's a check valve, integral with the Viair leader hose. I think I'm going to put a ball valve on the manifold to let off pressure manually, but between cycles the compressor will just have to start up against pressure.

It will be fine! The check valve will hold the pressure in the tank. I installed an unloader in one of my first systems and the only thing I noticed was it would leak after a while.

 

[subzali]

Just got my air manifold, inlet filter, and outlet filter/coalescer in. Few observations:

-The air manifold is longer than I thought it would be. It's about 9 inches long vs. the 6 I thought it would be. It's nice black anodized aluminum though. It has way more ports than I need, but that's ok.

-The inlet filter is a lot bigger than I was envisioning. I'll have to check and make sure it will even fit where I'm thinking of mounting it. I screwed the cap off to look at the filter element, which is replaceable, not sure where you get a new one though.

-The filter/coalescer is a lot bigger and heavier than I was expecting. Marco was able to mount his straight off his manifold, not sure I can do that. For comparison, the one from Kilby weighs 0.75 lb., this one weighs almost 2 lbs. I guess you pay more for less weight with the Kilby.

Some head-scratching yet to do...

 

[subzali]

Wondering if I should return this 2 lb. filter/coalescer and swap it out for the more expensive, but lighter at .75 lb. and smaller filter/coalescer from Kilby. With the smaller, lighter one, I could probably close-couple it to the manifold, whereas with this larger one I'm going to probably need to come up with some kind of support for this sucker. Which will probably look huger and stupider than this filter/coalescer already is. Cantilevering this 2lb. weight off my aluminum air manifold and bouncing it around in the rocks doesn't sound like a good idea either.

Any opinions?

 

[rover67]

That's why I went with the smaller one from Kilby. you could remote mount your big one and use a cheaper hose to connect it to the manifold. the leader hose and the filter will take a lot of heat out of the air, so I am guessing you'd be OK running a cheaper hose after it..

Also, does the filter you bought have any plastic parts in it? My old one did and i melted the plastic bits out of it..

 

[corsair23]

Reading through this (LINK) it states the filter should be placed 3-4' (hose length) away from the compressor...Not sure if that "rule" applies to all filters or just the Kilby - maybe it is a heat thing?

What about inexpensive home air compressor filters? I guess if this is going to be something you use a lot, you may not want to skimp on the filter. Someday I need to put one on my system but given that I rarely use it

 

[subzali]

I just don't know where I would mount it. There are not really any mounting provisions for it. On a static system (like mounted in a garage) it could easily be supported by 3/8" pipe, but in this case, I'm a little concerned. I don't know if I'm overthinking it or underrating the strength of 3/8" pipe, but it just seems like there can be a significant amount of force involved while off-road. There's a reason there's a battery tie-down and radiator support rods.

It's rated to 300F though, which is higher than the Kilby is rated. It's all metal and glass.

Right now my filter is going to be about 2' from my compressor outlet. Should be far enough to not be 300 deg F

 

[corsair23]

What shape is the filter you have? Normal "round" shape?

Might not look "pretty" but a big hose clamp attached to something? My big water/heat exchanger for my shower system in the 40 has a metal "T" bar attached to the wheel well with basically a couple hose clamps wrapped with some hose around the clamps that secures exchanger to the "T" of the bar. I had to replace the metal bar because it broke. The bar was 1/4" thick by 1/2" wide IIRC and cracked by one of the mounting holes.

Something like that might work but yeah, I'd attach it to something for sure. The exchanger is quite a bit heavier than your filter but still.

You can see the exchanger in the pics I posted in post #88 - It is the gold "tube" attached to the DS fender. I might have the old "T" laying around that you might be able to make work...

 

[subzali]

The filter/coalescer is this one:

For reference, it's 7" tall and the bowl is about 2 1/2" diameter. The bowl is about as tall as the width of my hand. And it's top-heavy.

Specs:
-Interstate Pneumatics W1461A
-Metal Bowl
-0.3 micron
-8 oz. bowl capacity
-20 SCFM at 100 psi

 

[subzali]

...What about inexpensive home air compressor filters? I guess if this is going to be something you use a lot, you may not want to skimp on the filter. Someday I need to put one on my system but given that I rarely use it

You got me thinking - I found this one, it's only $20, weighs 1.4 lbs., 175 psi, but I wonder what temperature it's rated to?
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00916009000P?prdNo=7&blockNo=7&blockType=G7

And there's this one for $35, 150 psi, no idea on temperature:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM2092182803P?prdNo=5

There's also this inline filter for $13.50, but not sure what the pressure rating is, let alone the temperature rating?
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM187895952P?prdNo=3

 

[rover67]

whoa that thing looks awesome.

Can you drill and tap any portion of it?

Why not just get some galvanized pipe and make a "u" of sorts to it and then the place you can mount it?


or mount the outlet to the manifold, mount that to something then add a piece of rigid pipe to the inlet and mount that.

is there really just no space for it?

 

[subzali]

Took a lot of pictures tonight.

First one is of the fitting and hose layout, approximately.

Second is the air manifold and approximately where I think I want to mount it. Still have to come up with a bracket for it.

Third is the inlet filter. This thing is big, and also here's what it looks like on the inside.

Last is the outlet filter/coalescer. This thing is big too, and heavy.

 

[subzali]

On the inlet filter, I started playing with the bracket to see how much height availability I would have. The hood was hitting the inlet filter, so I dropped the elevation down a bit using a hand railing (this is very much a hammer-to-fit, paint-to-match sort of deal. I was using my bumperettes as an anvil a couple days ago ), and it clears good now

 

[subzali]

On the outlet filter/coalescer, I came up with this, which I think will work, supporting the air manifold on one side and an inlet nipple on the other side of the filter, with a u-bend kinda like Marco suggested above. I didn't want to support it fully off the manifold because I think the torque would break the manifold. This configuration will also help the leader hose stay away from the exhaust, but I think I'm going to have to make some heat shields anyway. I can make a bracket that extends down to the sloping part of the fender.