Bauer Utilus 1st Run after Overhaul, a Little Help Needed

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KWS did you know that the oil pump on your Capitano is from a Mercedes Benz?

Manufacturers source stock parts from other existing products to save on specialist tooling costs.....surprise, surprise.
 
Your high blow by could be caused by several things depending on what was done on the rebuild.

If cylinder needed rebore, oversize rings would be required and if the ring gaps were too large and/or not installed spaced 180 deg to each other to maximise air leakage travel, it is not the parts that are at fault.
 
Although there is nothing wrong with LF valves or components, if you still have the old Bauer discharge valve, dismantle and clean it up and use it as a test bed to see if it changes anything.

Use a Stanley knife blade in the crack where the valve base separates and tap gently around with a hammer and check the disc and spring moves freely in the housing and also tidy up the seat base on very fine wet and dry paper.

Well the cleaned up old valve fixed my leak. No bubbles in the sight glass and the crankcase is dead silent. I guess I will run it until it causes problems.

Looks like I will give Filter Techs a call and see if there are any known issues with the current batch of discharge valves.

Thanks for the great input!
 
A quick update.
I bumped the final safety valve to 4500 psi to fill my scba tanks. I filled my 97cf tank from 3000 psi to 4500 psi in under 10 minutes. I am please with that result.

Around 400psi I noticed a couple of air bubbles in the sight glass, only a few and I could hear the air over riding the regulator as they occurred. I will give Filter Tech or August Industries a call to help me rig an oil pressure gauge to the stock test port ((If anyone here has experience with fitting a gauge your input would be appreciated)) . A bump up in oil pressure may settle it down.

I will also replace my "cleaned up" original final stage discharge valve with a new Bauer valve just in case it is experiencing intermittent leaking.
 
Try bleeding your oil feed line to sort out the bubbles. If that doesn't fix it, replace the ball bearing in the regulator and leave the oil pressure at factory specs.

There is provision to fit a flexible oil line and pressure gauge on top of the regulator which is childs play to do.

As long as the valve has no irregularities on the disc and seat, there is no need to replace it.
Purchasing a new Bauer valve does not guarantee longevity as we had one that lasted around100 fills before the spring broke. I replaced the broken spring with one out of a ball point pen and it has done over 2000 fills since.
 
Try bleeding your oil feed line to sort out the bubbles. If that doesn't fix it, replace the ball bearing in the regulator and leave the oil pressure at factory specs.[/QUOTE]

I have a couple of hours on the compressor after I replaced the faulty discharge valve and hadn't noticed any air in the sight glass, until it hit 4000psi. But then it ran fine from there all the way to 4600psi. I will run it through another cycle this afternoon and see if it is repeatable.

There is provision to fit a flexible oil line and pressure gauge on top of the regulator which is childs play to do.[/QUOTE]

There is a 6mm x 1/8 BSPP fitting on the regulator that I am needing to adapt to. This is my first venture into high pressure compressors and fittings, so my spare parts bin is bare. I am guessing I will need to get to 1/4' NPT one way or another. August industries have a 1/8 bspp to 1/4 npt which I figure will be easier that using the stock compression fitting.

As long as the valve has no irregularities on the disc and seat, there is no need to replace it.
Purchasing a new Bauer valve does not guarantee longevity as we had one that lasted around100 fills before the spring broke. I replaced the broken spring with one out of a ball point pen and it has done over 2000 fills since.[
/QUOTE]

Even after several minutes on a good oil stone there was some very fine pitting on the disk, the seat looked fine. I was able to remove the circular wear pattern caused by the seat but there are still some random pits. None however even come close to being the width of the seats contact surface.
 
So I ordered a Bauer discharge valve and new o-ring from August Industries. It leaks at least as much as the LF valve did(leaks down completely overnight). I will give August a call Monday and see what they say. Maybe new valves require a break in period to seat properly, I wouldn't think so, but maybe?
 
Has anyone else replaced a Bauer final stage discharge valve? Did you find it sealed up out of the box or did it require time to seat? Thanks
 
KWS did you know that the oil pump on your Capitano is from a Mercedes Benz?

Manufacturers source stock parts from other existing products to save on specialist tooling costs.....surprise, surprise.
I did not know that . But when that is done fromteh conception of hte product is has to be considered as a bauer original installed part. The difference is not who made the parts as much as it is whether BAUER originally used those specific sources of parts and designed the specs around them. If they did that then using a similar pump made by ford with looser specs can not be expected to perform the same as the Mercedes pump would. The parts I bought was done with the assumed understanding that they were approved Bauer parts bought from a cheaper parts outlet, and not parts that are designated by a 3rd party source to be similar and almost exactly what bauer uses.

Back in the 60's a chevy model ran out of engines for cars so they put pontiac engines in some chevys after a repaint from pontiac aqua to chevy orange. Some engines GM never even bothered to repaint. Same general engine only the firing order was different which made other components also different like cam shafts and cranks. No one ever knew until it was time for a tune up of a plug wire change or a crankshaft vibration dampener or other linked part was changed. Most things just didn't matter except for the fine details like the intake manifold has to have a different firing order cast on it. a switch and bait issue done without the consumers knowledge.
 
Has anyone else replaced a Bauer final stage discharge valve? Did you find it sealed up out of the box or did it require time to seat? Thanks
 

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