Air compressor "sweats" oil.

[RebelAlliance]

I have a chance to buy an 80g Devilbiss Pro Air II which, according to the current owner, "sweats" a bit of oil at the motor casing. He was told by the previous owner that it's not a big issue and it hasn't been, and I've heard from another who owns the same compressor that his does the same.

Is this common and how big of an issue is it?

 

[Muffduster]

I have a Porter Cable 80g that does the same. I just monitor the oil level.

 

[RECox286]

X2, no big deal. Watch the oil level in the crankcase. Oil is cheap!

Uncle Bob

 

[pipehack]

Sand casting holes... It's a big deal. That's not "sweating" it's leaking.

I had a car in high school that "sweat" oil all over the driveway. It used to piss my Dad off.

 

[Muffduster]

Like I said. No big deal. Keep an eye on the oil level through the sight glass.

 

[pipsters]

I once had a car that leaked a qt of oil every 1000 miles. A big deal? To some. To me it meant I put a qt of oil in every 1000 miles. Drove it for 75,000 miles. The repair for me was a $1,000+ repair so $2 every 1000 miles was a lot easier to swallow.

 

[earlthegoat2]

My car has been "sweating" oil for the last 100,000 miles. It has cost me about 1000 dollars less to keep it filled with oil than to get the problem fixed so far.

As you can see it is not a big deal. There seems to be no loss in reliability.

 

[earlthegoat2]

Yeah, what pipsters said.

 

[RebelAlliance]

Great thanks guys!

 

[Jawn]

Mine was too... I got tired of wiping up the mess so I got a gasket kit and sealed it up.

 

[RECox286]

When I crewed as a plane capt in the Navy on a P-2 Neptune (sub hunter)

The starboard engine used a bit of oil. "High consumption" was 3 gal/hr,

so if the 80 gal reservoir took 30 gal on a 10 hr flight, there was no gripe.

Towards the end of life for that particular engine (before Major Overhaul)

I was adding 40 to 50 gal of oil to the reservoir, and the entire flight crew

(including the officers) were OK with the situation. When it hit 50 gal

and a tad, I griped the motor, and we changed it out. Of course we lost

out on a few missions because the airplane was hard down. Some time

you gotta figure "oil is cheap" and to just keep yer eye on the situation.

And no, I am not a fool, b/c no matter how you try, ya can't park on a

cloud.

Uncle Bob

 

[Al Bundy]

Sweats oil? Meaning the casing is so porous it allows oil to pass through it? ROFLMAO! I would call that a huge problem. But if it's just seeping out around the gasket, keep it full and it won't be a big deal. Sometimes it doesn't pay to try and make a problem sound better.

 

[RECox286]

I think that the problem is a leaky gasket, rather than a porous casting.

I doubt that the mfg would QA something like that. Cleaning up the mess would

probably show where the leak is PDQ.

Uncle Bob

 

[G_P]

If it really is "sweating" oil through the crankcase I guess you could tear it down, bead blast it and then bake it in an oven to cook out all the oil in the casting.

Then you could get it powdercoated or epoxy painted to keep the oil from seeping through the casting flaws.