Viair Compressor and Factory wiring

[tmackviii]

I was reading DJ Kales old threads and theories on modifying the stock air ride system but didnt find too much on using Viair compressor in place of the factory one. I am pretty familiar with after market bag systems because I had a few FS Chevy trucks that were bagged. Kale mentioned something but didnt elaborate. My idea is to use a Viair compressor plumbed to a manifold block. This would allow me to retain the factory functions and schedule of the air ride and aslo allow me to expand in the future with minimal startup costs. The setup would be:

Viair wired to the factory harness along with a single SMC valve as a vent wired to the factory harness as well.


Viair compressor-Water Trap-Manifold-PTC fittings connecting the 4 factory lines out to bags-1 line out to dump valve-1 line out to a schrader valve.



From what Ive read so far our factory compressors run to a 50 amp fuse in the engine compartment. The Viair compressors max amp draw is 20 amps...this is the only issue I am facing. Would it be a problem wiring it this way since amp draw is way less?



Kale seemed like a cool guy and he thought outside of the box. With this setup I could also Kale mod the wiring or use Asham8.

 

[chris2523]

the factory air ride system is not all that complex imo.

what you described sounds like it could work.

as long as you have a way to vent, and a way to provide pressure to the solenoids, no problem.

my only question is, is the 20 amp pump powerful enough? a lot of the stuff i have seen had two or more aftermarket pumps, and even trunk mounted tanks.
the factory system does have timers built in so it doesn't run the pump too long and burn it out.

 

[tmackviii]

the factory air ride system is not all that complex imo.

what you described sounds like it could work.

as long as you have a way to vent, and a way to provide pressure to the solenoids, no problem.

my only question is, is the 20 amp pump powerful enough? a lot of the stuff i have seen had two or more aftermarket pumps, and even trunk mounted tanks.
the factory system does have timers built in so it doesn't run the pump too long and burn it out.

In one of Kales random threads he tested the output of a factory compressor vs a Viair 380 I believe. He tested fill time on a 5 gallon tank and the two compressors were within seconds of each other. Proved two things...one the factory unit is a really strong compressor and the fill times would be similar so I dont think the Viair would work too much harder. Im just concerned about the 20amp compressor on a 50 amp circuit. The theory is to wire the single smc to the blue and white wire of the factory harness so that module controls venting for me.

 

[chris2523]

Im just concerned about the 20amp compressor on a 50 amp circuit.

i'm not. that's a non-issue.

 

[96_Lincoln_LSC]

In one of Kales random threads he tested the output of a factory compressor vs a Viair 380 I believe. He tested fill time on a 5 gallon tank and the two compressors were within seconds of each other. Proved two things...one the factory unit is a really strong compressor and the fill times would be similar so I dont think the Viair would work too much harder. Im just concerned about the 20amp compressor on a 50 amp circuit. The theory is to wire the single smc to the blue and white wire of the factory harness so that module controls venting for me.

Im not an electrician so im going to preface this response with that first.
I believe you can remove the 50 amp fuse and replace with a 20 amp one, the fuse is designated to blow when a load greater then the device can handle safely, if you connect a device that needs to be protected up to 20 amps is connected to a system supporting a 50 amp protection , you can melt the system. (Compressor) the fuse wouldn't blow out until it exceeded 50 amps which is in excess of 30 amps more then the device is rated for. Again I think you can swap out the fuse and it should be ok even though the wires will support 50 amps, the fuse will blow when the load exceeds 20 (swapped out fuse for 20Amp).

second, I know the factory compressor Vents the air out of the air ride system. its not vented from the bags themselves. If the compressor your replacing does not have a vent feature then you are not going to vent at all. our systems usually get stuck due to water (turning to Rust) clogging the vent valve in the vent position (poor design in compressor allowing water to collect in vent module of compressor)

Again this is just my .02 worth of info. I hope it may clear something up for you. I just felt the need to respond to something lately..

 

[dnehthend]

I don't see why that wouldn't work. I think the hardest part would be finding ptc fittings for the factory air lines.

 

[tmackviii]

Yeah finding ptc fittings might be hard. Man the sound of a venting smc would be cool.

 

[tirefryr]

Im not an electrician so im going to preface this response with that first.
I believe you can remove the 50 amp fuse and replace with a 20 amp one, the fuse is designated to blow when a load greater then the device can handle safely, if you connect a device that needs to be protected up to 20 amps is connected to a system supporting a 50 amp protection , you can melt the system. (Compressor) the fuse wouldn't blow out until it exceeded 50 amps which is in excess of 30 amps more then the device is rated for. Again I think you can swap out the fuse and it should be ok even though the wires will support 50 amps, the fuse will blow when the load exceeds 20 (swapped out fuse for 20Amp).

second, I know the factory compressor Vents the air out of the air ride system. its not vented from the bags themselves. If the compressor your replacing does not have a vent feature then you are not going to vent at all. our systems usually get stuck due to water (turning to Rust) clogging the vent valve in the vent position (poor design in compressor allowing water to collect in vent module of compressor)

Again this is just my .02 worth of info. I hope it may clear something up for you. I just felt the need to respond to something lately..

You are correct in respect to changing the fuse to a smaller one, but the fuse is there to protect the wire from burning, not the load. You fuse to the ampacity of the wire, but you can safely fuse to protect a load that has less ampacity than the wire itself.

For example, I have 1/0 power cable running to my amplifier in my trunk. This cable at this length can easily support 300+ amps. My amplifier's max draw with a sine wave would be about 50 amps. It would be silly to fuse for a 300 amp load, so I simply install a 50 amp fuse and voila, no issue. You never want to over-fuse.

As for the venting, this is simply controlled with a solenoid or two controlled any way you please.

While the "lesser" compressor may work, will it last? That's what you have to think about. Look at how many of these cars still have a fully functional factory compressor 20 years later.

 

[tirefryr]

I don't see why that wouldn't work. I think the hardest part would be finding ptc fittings for the factory air lines.

These fittings are easily sourced locally and online for any sized tube.

 

[m_maker]

One thing you want to keep in mind is how fast the system will vent. That was causing issues for Kale back in the day.
The stock suspension computer was getting confused when he was running big lines.
If you're sticking with stock sized lines, and solenoids at bags, then it might not be an issue.

 

[dnehthend]

yeah, if you vent too fast the computer throws an error code and you'll have to restart the car. where can you get the fittings and what size are the factory lines? I remember looking a few years ago and didn't have any luck.

 

[tirefryr]

You can easily control venting via a quick exhaust, restrictor, muffler, flow control, etc. . . Now this is just generic. Of course you'd have to adjust to the timing of the stock system and adjust to the needed flow equal to whatever the stock computer is programmed for.

I personally know nothing of the stock line sizes or fittings, but I do machinery maintenance for a living and work with all sizes of piping and tubing and push-to-connect or John Guest fittings. Everything in my factory has pneumatic controls in some capacity and I work with all these things daily. I purchase most of my fittings from Grainger, Fastenal, and McMaster Carr. Some things take specialized fittings sourced from the manufacturer, but all are OEM'd, so there's always another source. One of the world's largest manufacturers is Parker and they will have a dealer in nearly every decent sized city.

 

[tmackviii]

yeah, if you vent too fast the computer throws an error code and you'll have to restart the car. where can you get the fittings and what size are the factory lines?

I didnt know that. Slow downs are available but I didnt plan on using any.