Old Dayton compressor, Need some advice.

[Bamboo]

Hi every one, New to the forum, Have lurked for awhile and have enjoyed many threads, happy to finally have joined and hopefully in this case to learn a little bit about my compressor..

bought it on craigslist for $150, seem like a good price but it has its issues already. this is my first compressor, so bare with me on the lack of knowledge.

So, it is a Dayton Speedaire
Model: 3Z581, 3HP, 200 psi, Single Stage/3 cylinder, Single Phase, and it runs off 220

so initially it started sounded good, untill it reaches about 120 psi, and 1 of the cylinders gets about 10-15* hotter than the others and begins to squeal..

I understand that as the pressure builds its also going to put more pressure on those cylinders, so if there is a faulty check valve on the tank, would this cause the cylinders to heat up/squeal?

appreciate any input, want to get it in the best shape I can before I begin to use it, Seems like a good old compressor, with just a few flaws, I hope!

here is a link for comparison
http://www.govliquidation.com/auction/view?auctionId=5947274

 

[Fixnair]

That model compressor is only designed for 125 PSI max. Do not try to go to 200 PSI. At 120 PSI I would expect the cylinder head temp to be somewhere near 250 to 300 degrees.
Th check valve would not make any one cylinder hotter than the others. The most common cause for this would be valves in the hotter cylinder leaking. It doesn't sound like there is anything appreciably wrong with your setup.
When I said your machine is good for 125 PSI, that s maximum. I wouldn't run it past 100 PSI normally and occasionally push it higher when needed.
Squealing is probably the belt slipping.

 

[Bamboo]

Thank you Fixnair.
I searched my pump model # and found out for myself, I guess the misleading information from the Previous owner was satisfactory enough at the time.

so, Would it be worth just leaving her as is, And turn down that regulator..? Or would it be not a bad idea to open things up and clean valves ?
not sure if that is something practiced with old compressors or not.

thanks again, Caught me before catastrophic failure!

 

[Rickenbackerman]

I have the same pump on my franken-presser, although mine is labeled 3Z170B? It's a good pump, it was made by Champion.

I recently overheated it running my blast cabinet. One of the cylinders would squeal when hot just like yours. I pulled it all apart and found that one of the cylinders was 2-3 thousandths smaller than the other two. I honed all three, and hit the "tight" piston with 400 to loosen it up some. Cleaned the valves, slapped it back together with new gaskets and it runs great again!

I have mine set to turn on at 100psi, off at 120. Change the oil regularly!

 

[Bamboo]

I did stumble on to your thread, Looks like a beast!

I'm guessing the P/O overheated this thing regularly , so I wonder if opening it up wouldn't be a bad idea.
any thing to worry about when pulling the cylinders off?

did you take it to a machine shop? or did you do it yourself?
I don't really want to go putting more $ in to it but if it isn't much I think it would be worth it

What do you use for the air filter?

 

[Rickenbackerman]

Nope, just yank 'em off. You'll probably need gaskets, though. I ordered some from a place called industrial air power, but they took forever, so I ended up making some with an X-acto knife...

I did it myself, I have a small engine hone. I didn't take much off, though, just enough for a nice crosshatch. The tight piston had some small score marks on it, so I hit it with 400 just enough to take the scoring off.

Mine had these little half-moon shaped filters in the heads. You can kind of make them out in the pic above. I assume yours has the same. When I ordered the gaskets I also ordered three of the plates that some of the champions had - they bolt on top of the heads and have 1/2" NPT threads for regular style screw-in filters. Then I got three filters off ebay, and voila! I'll snap a pic tonight for ya.

 

[tomshep]

I have the same exact compressor. My brother bought it in the later 70s. I got it about 83. We both used it for painting cars and I have used it for years. Darn good little unit. It just chugs along. It runs any air tool I have and as stated, I painted with it. You would have to pace yourself with a blast cabinet. As already stated, pressure is 120ish for off. Here are a few pics. For parts, try Grainger first. They may still have gaskets for it.

Tom

 

[Fixnair]

Before You take it apart you better try to find gaskets for it. You may be ble to make your own gaskets depending on your kill level. If you disassemble the cylinder/ piston arrangement and reassemble it without replacing the rings, you may end up with an oil pumper on your hands. WHo knows?

 

[Rickenbackerman]

I made my own gaskets, but I also got a set from industrial air power. Tom, it looks like you don't have any air filters on yours?

Here's mine wearing it's new filters:

 

[tomshep]

Rick,

I didn't notice that on yours. What are those? Details...

Mine has a thin metal ring that goes on the top of each cylinder and it had a cotton type filter in there. They were shaped like a half-circle. They deteriorated long ago and I now stuff Scotch pads in there.

Tom

 

[Rickenbackerman]

Tom...

Mine had these little half-moon shaped filters in the heads. You can kind of make them out in the pic above. I assume yours has the same. When I ordered the gaskets I also ordered three of the plates that some of the champions had - they bolt on top of the heads and have 1/2" NPT threads for regular style screw-in filters. Then I got three filters off ebay, and voila! I'll snap a pic tonight for ya.

 

[Bamboo]

I like those heads with filters you got Rick, Very nice.

on another note, I tried to get the compressor down to 100psi on the regulator, but again had to shut it off before the squealing got bad, which is about 70-75 psi right now.

so I guess it has to come apart, what else might I need other then the gaskets and honing ?
And Rick, What did you make the gaskets out of?
Is it relatively easy?

appreciate the info guys

 

[Rickenbackerman]

I just used the same roll of gasket material I've had for like 25 years... You can find it at any auto parts store. Cut them out on a piece of glass using an X-acto knife. It's pretty easy. The most time consuming part is scraping the old gaskets off the cylinders, heads and valve plates. That took me a few hours.

Another note of caution - when torquing the heads, don't go to more than 13-15 foot pounds or so. I tried to go to 18 and the threads started to pull out of one of the cylinders on one of the bolts. It's still ok, but if it ever needs to come apart again I'll need to drill, tap and helicoil.

BTW here's a better pic of one of my filters:

 

[taumac]

Do you know where to get parts? I have a single cyc version and looking for maybe a filter and maybe some new valves. Mine doesnt have a model plate but reads model a-9 which is a older version i think. Even the newer version has been disconutied BTW it was speedaire green at one point. Btw under grangier I believe its a 125 max psi unit and I (before i knew better) pumped my 30 gal tank up to 150 bfore turning it down to 125.