What did you do in your shop today?

[MiniDave]

IR is def a great brand, I bought my no name one at HF and was surprised to find almost all of it was made in USA, the electric motor came from Mexico. It was half the price of that one.....

I see these on FB Marketplace all the time (5hp 60-80 gallon compressors), a lot of them look brand new - like bought and rarely used - so if you don't use it constantly like a production shop, maybe something like that will do?

Are you already wired for 240?

[94touring]

The only thing it has going against it is that's a 3450rpm motor, which will be louder, have less torque, and be more duty cycle limited.  I specifically replaced my massive motor with a 7.5hp 1750rpm motor.  The lower rpm units cost more.  I think the motor on mine was $1500 by itself.  I shed some tears when the original motor died on me.

[Mudhen]

Interesting about the motor RPM, never knew about that, was only looking at the 15CFM number.

Yes, wired for 220...should be OK for 230/240 as well?  Or no...

[94touring]

If you're doing some all day work like I'm often doing in my shop, the lower rpms might be important.  Plus mine sits in a shed that gets about 120 degrees out there.  Or if you just want less noise. Mine barely chugs along and I never hear it inside on the other side of the wall.

[cstudep]

The lower rpm is also easier on the compressor components. I mean its basically a small motor, crank, rods, pistons. Its just using the compression stroke to compress air into a tank rather than light a fire for a return trip.

[94touring]

Yep.  That one is a single piston setup looks like. I'm not sure how that would compare to something like what I have which is 3 pistons. I can probably get away with the lower rpms because it's more displacement filling the tank. I can fill my 120 gallon tank from empty pretty quickly. Then it takes awhile before it kicks back on.  That's a benefit to an 80+ gallon tank too.

[cstudep]

I think the reason the cheaper ones are generally faster Rpm is two fold. 1 - higher rpm motors are usually cheaper because they have fewer windings, so they pair them up with the cheaper, lower scfm compressor components. 2 - running the higher rpm means more strokes per minute so that helps recover some of the scfm gap between the cheap single stage etc.. Compressors and the much more expensive dual etc.. Stage.

All that said, if you are generally only using it on occasion in a home shop it probably does not matter, buy as much scfm as you need to do what you need. If its going to be running a lot more you are probably better off buying a more expensive unit to start with as it will likely outlive the cheap ones by 2 or 3x. Maybe more. My old industrial grade compressor is easily 50+ years old. I rarely change the oil like I should and it sits in a shop that goes from 110+ in summer to - degrees in winter.

[94touring]

Got the rear shocks done on the truck today.   Bolts and nuts were really rusted on and the one side top was hard to get to.  Old shocks were dead.  Barely any rebound and easy to fully compress. 

[cstudep]

Nice, I have my rear shocks sitting in the shop waiting on the front struts to arrive. They shipped this morning so hoping they get here before the weekend.

[94touring]

It's like a whole new truck lol.  Nice smooth ride and stops.

[94touring]

Forgot to mention that the rusty exhaust is more rusty than I thought.  The main muffler has holes in the body. Which makes sense because the exhaust note had changed a couple years ago.  In anticipation of doing those headers ordered my trusty dynomax super turbo muffler as a replacement.  Flows great and isn't loud.  There's also a smaller resonator prior to the muffler I'm replacing with a 1320 brand resonator exhaust with drone eliminating tube. They also make great products.  The headers I want are about $1650 before tax title and fees. That may be a winter project after I check funds from summer trips and other projects I have going on.

[MiniDave]

Are you doing dual exhaust? I like the way those Lexus V-8s sound with a good set of duals on them.....

[94touring]

No dual, just a 1/4" bigger on diameter after the headers y pipe. Need to determine how I want to do cats too. High flow or just resonators.

[94touring]

After reading,high flow cats actually flow within a few % points of going straight pipes, particularly if you go with a larger diameter in/out on the cats.  So I'll just go high flow and use the 02 sensor spacers to hopefully keep the CEL from going off.  I want it to sound as stock as possible. 

[scalpel_ninja]

I changed out the HPFP in my 2010 MINI JCW for the third time.

First pump came with the car when I bought it at 109k miles. It died in a year.

Sent the core to a guy in Canada who rebuilt it and it lasted 5 years, 50k miles and it also died.

Guy in Canada had no more in stock, so I bought one off eBay (my mistake). Lasted less than a month. The spring loaded regulator valve was glued on, fell off after a few heat cycles, oil in the pump all leaked out. Full refund.

Finally bit the bullet and bought an OE part. Works like a charm now and I didn't realize how much HP I was missing!

[94touring]

Have to go back to work but ordered 2 high flow cats. Not sure how much time I'll have to actually fab it all up before my big trip but it would be nice if I could find the time. 

[Jims5543]

My son and I changed the spark plugs on his work truck yesterday. When we had the transmission flushed, the mechanic said it wasn't running well and to consider a tune up. We had already planned on it.  60K miles on it we figured it was time.

What was crazy to me is that every single spark plug was snug but not tight. The crush washers were not even collapsed. A couple of the plugs looked like they were experiencing blow buy on the threads.

Needless to say, the truck runs 100% better now, throttle response is much improved, as my son said, it's a completely different truck now.


Saturday, in anticipation of an upcoming road trip to Key West, I changed the oil on the M5, which I have only manged to put 7K miles on in the last 12 months.  It was an afternoon of one stupid mistake after another doing that oil change. Mostly because I was being stupid.

First I dropped the drain plug into the catch pan, then as I was unscrewing the cartridge for the oil filter, I neglected to put on a glove or even grab a rag, as soon as I got it loose oil poured over the top, burning my hand, which I instinctively dropped it, spilling oil all over the place.  Then screwing the new cartridge on I let the adapter that slides over it slip off and fall into the oil catch pan.

I wanted to put a gauge on the AC, I felt like it could be blowing a little cooler, in order to do that you have to pull one of the air boxes as the lines run under it, then you have to turn that air box sideways and reattach it in order to start the car as the MAP sensor is mounted on it.

When I was getting ready to thread a mounting bolt on the air box, I dropped it, I could hear it work its way down to the belly pan. Which is where it will stay unless if falls out. LOL! I matched up a bolt I had on hand to use in its place because I was not about to pull the belly pan off, it is a massive PITA pulling it and putting it back on.

I discarded that cardboard, I made quite the mess Saturday.

[Jims5543]

After reading,high flow cats actually flow within a few % points of going straight pipes, particularly if you go with a larger diameter in/out on the cats.  So I'll just go high flow and use the 02 sensor spacers to hopefully keep the CEL from going off.  I want it to sound as stock as possible. 

I am interested in this exhaust project, I am not a welder or fabricator, I have debated replacing the cats on my FJ. How much were those high flow cats? 

[94touring]

Not at all expensive. $45 for a pair off Amazon.