Think my Compressor blew a gasket

[AJLChase]

So back in 2011 I purchased an Ingersoll Rand SS5 compressor from Tractor Supply. I had big dreams and aspirations of becoming a self taught body man and was going to use this to paint with..... then a motor vehicle accident happened later and there it pretty much sat. I used the thing for all of maybe 2 hours worth of run time and decided I'd sell it as I wasn't going to be using it the way I had planned.

Get out there to look at it and notice it won't fill up with air past 90 psi. The motor would just run and run and run but would never get any higher. Getting frustrated I just left it there and hadn't dealt with it. I called IR two days ago and they want $300 to send a tech out plus parts. Forget that, that's a 1/3rd of what I bought the thing for.

I go out to the garage tonight and pull off the cylinder cap and pull off the valve plate. I notice right away that the top gasket has a huge tear where it looked like the gasket actually tried to bubble up and tear. The rest of the gasket looked ok, but this by far stood out right away.

I've never torn open a compressor motor before but the valves look fine, maybe just cleaned up. The bottom gasket to the valves looked ok too, but I figure I'll replace those too.

Does this sound like the cause of my issue? Also, when putting this back together with the new gaskets, what's the best way to clean up the valve plate to get all the grime off of it?

[imjeff]

Check your relief valve for a leak before going through the whole thing. It's leaking somewhere, but the cylinders would be my last guess.

[ERASER5]

Blown gaskets are a sign of high pressure starts. In a properly working system, the compressor will start with ZERO pressure at the head. Tank pressure can be anything.

Correct: Compressor reaches pressure. Pressure cutoff stops the motor, and the "teeteer totter" plate depresses a shrader valve and releases the pressure between the tank and the copmressor head. That is the little hiss you will hear for a few minutes. The check valve in the tank "checks" the pressure from back flowing into the compressor. Thus, when restarted, the head pressure is ZERO and the start up is easy.

Check Valve Failure: That little hiss never stops until the tank is empty. The big honk'n nut where the compressor line connects to the tank is the top of the check valve body. Remove line, then unscrew the valve from the tank. Inspect and replace.

Bleed Down Failure: Insure that the "teeter totter" plate hits the shrader valve. If you were the one who removed it, put it back. It is suppose to hiss. If a PO (like mine) disabled the valve/line, replace the pressure switch and hook up the bleed line.

Hope this helps. And thank you Cambell/Hausfeld Tech that educated me on this. My compressor was seriously screwed up.

[_Ogre]

chances are that compressor has reed valves in it, basically just spring metal fingers over a flat plate
air blows thru one way and flaps down to keep the air in

sitting for 2 years with seldom use there may be some rust on the valve plate
i have resurfaced a reed valve plate by using fine sand paper on a piece of glass to flatten the plate

as for the gasket: when i rebuilt our old shop compressor i was able to buy the reed valves cheap
i also resurfaced the valve plates with fine sand paper on glass
but they wanted an arm and a leg for the gasket set, i reused the gaskets with a little high temp rtv
6 yrs ago...

[Mieser3]

AJLChase, I have the exact same air compressor and had the exact same problem you are having just a couple of weeks ago. My compressor is 4 years old but has hardly been used at all. I was working it pretty good a few weeks ago by doing some sandblasting and that's when my problem started. The motor on my SS5 would run and run and finally go into thermal lockdown because the tank would never fill up to the appropriate cutoff PSI (I believe it's 125 or 135 PSI). I read all kinds of bad things on the internet about the crappy Emerson motors IR put on these compressors. Pulled the motor off and had it checked out. My motor did have a bad run capacitor on it. Bought a new run capacitor, installed it and hooked the motor back up.......still had the same problem with the compressor. Checked the relief valve at the tank where the line from the pump connects and it was fine. You can check this valve by building up some pressure in the tank, shutting the compressor off and then slowly loosen the line fitting on the pump. If you hear any air coming out of the line as you loosen it you have a bad check valve (the check valve prevents air from going from the tank back into the pump). Finally pulled the head off the pump and I had a blown head gasket. The gasket was completely gone between the 2 cylinders. This was forcing the 2 cylinders to basically work against each other and wouldn't allow the tank to get to full PSI. Replace the head gasket and I'll bet your problem will be fixed. My valve plate wasn't real dirty so I just cleaned it off with a putty knife. Also, I wouldn't use any RTV on the gaskets. I believe the torq specs on the bolts are 28 PSI.

Here's what my gasket looked like on the valve plate. Notice it is completely gone between the 2 cylinders. If you have any questions let me know.

[AJLChase]

Originally Posted by Mieser3

AJLChase, I have the exact same air compressor and had the exact same problem you are having just a couple of weeks ago. My compressor is 4 years old but has hardly been used at all. I was working it pretty good a few weeks ago by doing some sandblasting and that's when my problem started. The motor on my SS5 would run and run and finally go into thermal lockdown because the tank would never fill up to the appropriate cutoff PSI (I believe it's 125 or 135 PSI). I read all kinds of bad things on the internet about the crappy Emerson motors IR put on these compressors. Pulled the motor off and had it checked out. My motor did have a bad run capacitor on it. Bought a new run capacitor, installed it and hooked the motor back up.......still had the same problem with the compressor. Checked the relief valve at the tank where the line from the pump connects and it was fine. You can check this valve by building up some pressure in the tank, shutting the compressor off and then slowly loosen the line fitting on the pump. If you hear any air coming out of the line as you loosen it you have a bad check valve (the check valve prevents air from going from the tank back into the pump). Finally pulled the head off the pump and I had a blown head gasket. The gasket was completely gone between the 2 cylinders. This was forcing the 2 cylinders to basically work against each other and wouldn't allow the tank to get to full PSI. Replace the head gasket and I'll bet your problem will be fixed. My valve plate wasn't real dirty so I just cleaned it off with a putty knife. Also, I wouldn't use any RTV on the gaskets. I believe the torq specs on the bolts are 28 PSI.

Here's what my gasket looked like on the valve plate. Notice it is completely gone between the 2 cylinders. If you have any questions let me know.

Hey Mieser3, thanks a lot! That sounds 100% like what mine is doing. I pulled the head off and the gasket was torn and almost arching up away from the valves. I would like to think this is my most likely culprit. New gaskets arrive on Wednesday so we'll give that a shot. Thanks for the torq specs, I didn't want to message the IR Rep to find out, if I didn't have to!

[Mieser3]

No problem! Hope it solves your issue.

[AJLChase]

Finally got the new gaskets in today and also found my camera and took some pictures of my valves and gaskets


What's the best way to go about cleaning up the corrosion on the valve?

[68C15]

note to self; buy a V2 compressor instead of an in-line

I would use the fine sandpaper (400) and a real flat surface to support the valve so you don't bend/warp it