Thread: A freshen up for Willy

that's great Gav! oh mate, they moved in yesterday I'm nearly reduced to tears... I hate change and I hate having people buzzing around me.. Now my house has been re arranged to fit the extra furniture and everytime I try to have a beer on the couch ALONE theres bloody people and dogs on top of me.. It's crap...
I'll arrange a trip or two when my exams are over... should be in the next few weeks!

I got home today a little early and felt more comfortable outside than in so I started a little project I've been thinking about for a while. An air compressor and storage tank that I want to plumb through Willy. I thought it'd be great for cleaning up the chainsaw, give me a head start when pumping up tyres and well I thought it'd just be a bloody handy thing to have! Figured I may as well keep adding things to this thread..

Anyway I got this twin cylinder air compressor from ebay a while ago, think it cost me $50ish... recently I got a little air tank that came with all the needed valves etc that was $70... the plan is to put the compressor and the tank in the back of Willy somewhere and run copper pipe to the front and rear giving me two points to tap into, that also means my hose doesn't have to be as long which will save some space.

I figured the best way to keep it neat was to mount the compressor on the tank and then have it bolted to my draws just behind the fridge. All I had to do was grind away some of the black powder coat on the tank, take the feet off the compressor and spin them around so they fit better between the seam welds on the tank. Weld the feet to the tank and gave it a few coats of paint. Decided on blue, thought it would be nice if it matched my big compressor next to my workbench. Tommorow I'll pinch some fittings from work and run copper from the tank to the compressor!

A bit of a sidetrack from getting Willy running properly but it kept me amused for a while! I'll post some more pics when I have it connected up and installed in Willy

Cheers, Andy

G'day Andy,
Just wondering where you sourced the tank from. I'm looking to do the same thing.
What size is it, as in length/width, just the tank, not the unit as a whole.

hi chops, the tank I got from Ebay like most things I have It's one of these -----> Air Tank 1 Gallon air ride suspension Viair pressure switch, drain,safety valve | eBay ! did that work?

the tank alone is about 300mm long and 180mm high.. you would need to allow a little extra in the length for fittings if space was tight. Came with a 150psi pressure switch which luckily is the max pressure for that little compressor I have.

I plumbed the tank and compressor together tonight with some 16mm copper, I reckon it looks pretty cool! gave it a test it works really well although there is no pressure cut off only the safety relief valve. As it is atm it's a portable system but I think I'd still like to install it into willy when I can. Not sure how to wire it up yet though. It has a 55amp fuse so I'm guessing I'd have to supply it with 60amps to allow for some voltage drop and use a big relay with the pressure switch...

cheers, Andy

I've finally got Willy running nicely! Not sure what the problem is but that zenith copy carby I got has an awful flat spot. Ended up just cleaning the original zenith up and putting it back on.

I set the idle, then checked and set the timing, adjusted the mixture then checked the timing again and I was off for my first test drive!

He's much smoother and nicer to drive, holds gears on hills for longer and even powered up hills that I had trouble cruising up before. I thought he was in good shape before I'm bloody happy now!! Well worth the money, time and effort..

I'll head back outside in a while and check the head bolts and do the valve clearances again. might be worth nipping up the manifolds too but then I think I'm pretty right to go!

cheers, Andy

....... well......... Willy has been going great since the freshen up. Sarah and I took him to Echuca for Easter and I've been on more than a few man trips throughout the year, the only problems I've had was having to deal with some smoke blowing around the cabin from time to time. Not ideal but I was sure it was only oil leaking from the rocker cover onto the exhaust.

On my most recent weekend away the smoke was particularly bad, I had started a thread a few months ago convinced that this problem was related to crankcase ventilation and oil leaking from the rocker cover but after todays fiddling it seems as though the rings on at least one cylinder are stuffed My smoke problem was in fact not oil but exhaust gas coming out of the vent on the rocker cover, and running the engine with the rocker cover off I can now see exhaust gases coming up through a few of the push rods..

I'll see if I can get my hands on something to test the compression but it's not looking good.

So long story short..... should have done the rings... or at least a compression test..
I'm thinking now I'm getting good at pulling engines apart I'll be able to get what I need and knock it on the head.. If Sarah is clever enough I might set up a camera or two and do a time lapse of the job...

Freshen up 2.0 - coming soon

Cheers Andy

Sorry to hear about this Andy.
Its always a hard call as to which way to go when you start on this sort of stuff.
Hopefully build #2 will see it right.

Buggar...

Tough break mate, hope you have Willy up and running for some Summer camping.