The more I look at it combined with the more I drink I figure I could probably booty fab a York compressor turned on its side with a serpentine kit in the same location as the stock compressor. Of course being a cheap ******* that probably won't happen unless a York falls out of the sky into my front yard some time soon.
Yeah that orange thing is my lubricator; the grey thing is a filter / separator. The lubricator does work under a vacuum like that, I can see the oil dropping in the sight glass however when the oil is cold it's pretty thick and doesn't flow well.
I put another compressor on it yesterday and messed around with it some more, didn't seize the compressor but the longest I let it run without stopping was about 2 minutes. As far as pressure goes... it will fill that little 2 gallon tank to a 100psi in less than 30 seconds and I managed to air up a 31" tire from 0 to 35psi in less than 2 minutes, I'll try a 37" this weekend and actually time it. I think I'm going to change the pressure switch and blow off valve to allow for a 125 / 105 off and on cycle, right now it's at 100 / 80 and works well but needs a little more of a head start for running air tools.
Parts list? I dunno... bunch of extra crap in my garage, (lubricator and filters probably $100) I'm not done with it yet but there are a few things I would do differently if and when I do it over.
First and foremost... if you're gonna strip a compressor for parts like I did shoot for at least a 4 gallon compressor with twin air tanks that are small enough in diameter to fit under the back somewhere without being a rock magnet. The air tank up front is cool but is a PITA to mount. Try to shoot for a compressor that has a 125psi pressure rating, this will get you a pressure switch that cycles off at 125psi and on at around 105. If you look around long enough you could probably come up with a used contractor type compressor that has burned up motor or compressor for dirt cheap, this will get you the air tanks ($15-50 depending where you look) a pressure switch ($15-30 depending on what type you want) gauges, regulators, fittings and other misc stuff ($40) for cheaper than buying each component.
I don't have anything solid on the rest of the setup, many others have run A/C compressors in OBA applications with good results but it seems that each compressor has its little quirks. I need to figure out if the lubricator setup I have is going to be able to provide enough lube to the compressor or if I'll have to go with some sort of pressure fed lube setup. I might move the lubricator in closer to the compressor so that the lube actually gets to the compressor and doesn't just soak the walls of the intake hose this would also heat the lubricator up quicker since it would be closer to the engine and the oil would thin out and flow quicker but I'm worried that after I shut the engine off the temperature in that area above the exhaust manifold would get so hot that the plastic lube bowl might melt.
Here's a setup I'm playing with to pressure feed oil into the intake of the compressor. I really don't want to run it like this full time but I don't want to seize another compressor if I can help it.