Bauer Capitano pumping very slow

[divinginn]

What possible causes for very slow pumping,less than 2 cf per minute,half the 4 cf it is rated for. Could a dirty intake filter cause this? IT pumps up to pressure to fill hp pressure tanks but takes forever to fill,I just spent nearly a hour topping off a steel 95 from 2500 to 3200,I did have a Alum 80 hooked up also that bled off some pressure before I shut off the 80.

 

[jbomb001]

Plugged filter. Leak on output side u haven't heard or noticed. Rings getting bad ??.. I'm not familiar with that model is it belt driven ? If so the belt slipping will cause slower pumping

Sent from my galaxy S5 Active.

 

[ti325v]

Auto drains ?
By pass the dump solenoid then pressurize it and shut it off listen for leaks on the pump, I had slow fill problems with one of mine and it had some serious leaks on the plumping on the pump.
if you have stage pressure gauges a low one will be a give away.
Yeah rings could be bad but that would generally be a slow change. Need a blow by test.
Post pics and history of the pump and development of the problem and we can help further.

 

[divinginn]

The drains are manual,belt driven,no obvious air leaks,it is rated for 4cfm. Everything sounded normal to me but I am new to running compressors,I need to look in the manual and see what the different stage pressures are and see if they are right.

 

[ti325v]

How many hours on it ?
We need details...History of the pump and how the problem developed. No help with out it.

 

[NAM001]

divinginn

I have the same thing here . i took a gage and put in on the 2-3 stage drain and ran the compressor. final output was running 4k easily and now i struggle to get 3200 after a long fill time. my 2nd stage output was low. talked to lawrence factor i think and decided to get the rebuild kit for 1000.00. its all the head valve rebuilds the 3rd stage piston and cylendar and rings. I dont think that that rings are an issue but it is suspected that is the problem with the low 2-3 stge pressure or its valves. My cpmpressor ws pumping 5k before i bought it and i let it sit for a couple of years, (bad thing) im still pumping 3k for lp tank fills so perhaps this winter i will do the rebuild and run it at least once a week. I have no pressure build up in the crank case so i dont think its rings. I am acually hoping that i find carbon in the valves. I was not able to find out what the 1st stage was putting out so the low 2nd stge pressure yeilds guesses. Let me know what you find.

 

[ti325v]

No pressure in the crankcase, no blow by, not rings...But remember most crankcases are vented into the first stage, as there will always be SOME blow by, which must be vented. Usually fed into the first stage generally before the first stage valves to lubricate them. Every compressor I have owned is vented in this way, of course I cannot speak for all of them.

Proper test...
Get a dwyer flowmeter from ebay, I can find the blow by spec for you with some hunting....but I would expect less then 10% of compressor output.

Quick and dirty way to check blow by... Somebody here gifted me this trick.
It is late and I am in stupid mode, so I will do the best I can to explain...

Tap into the crankcase anywhere you can. My coltri compressor has a flare fitting just for this...I tapped the oil fill cap on a Bauer for a fitting...

Take a large bottled water jug, fill it with water, submerge it in a larger bucket of water open end down. running compressor...take a hose from the crankcase tap you found....shove it up into the inverted water bottle. as the air is pumped in, it will push the water out, to make this a bit more accurate RAISE the water bottle keep the water level in the bottle JUST a bit below the water level in the bucket, you will have to raise it as the air is pumped in ... time how long it takes to empty the 20 liter water bottle..you will have a very close approximation of the blow by of the compressor. Here large water jugs are 20 liters, the 210 LPM pump I was testing pumped the water out in about 15 seconds...Roughly 1.15 lps blow by x 60 seconds per minute..the compressor was blowing about 70 lpm past the rings, 1/3rd of its output and it was about that slow pumping. This actually works. I hope this was clear enough.

 

[NAM001]

I ran the compressor and had my hand on hte dip stick tube and felt nothing detectable blowing by. If you are talking about 10% i should have felt some sort of presure build up and did not. I will probably rebuild the heads and try the pump before i think about rings and cylendar replavcement.

 

[bakodiver391]

90% of the time it will be the valves, which is also the easiest fix, so you should try that first, after giving the whole system a soap bubble check to rule out leaks. I have found one of the best diagnostic tools is head temperature. If one stage does not have good compression, that head will be noticeably cooler as that cylinder is not doing much compressing. Even my cheapo multimeter came with a temperature probe, and it pays to establish a baseline of cylinder head pressures.

 

[divinginn]

The compressor had about 4200 hours on it and has had a major rebuild a few years ago,I just need to play around with it and find out why it is so slow. It seems to go up to pressure just pumps very slowly,it has pumped up my hp tanks to 3500 psi it just takes over a hour for one tank to fill. It seems to be pumping about half of what it should. I am going to fill some tanks this week and will check the stage pressures and check for leaks.