4.3L XJ

I have a kick *** on board air, but never had a good place for the two gallon tank. So it ended up in the back taking up cargo room. I decided to take that space back. The tank is seen here with the rear inner panel removed.



I wanted to hide the tank and having a two door I had a nice long space for a tube. I choose 3" schedule 80 PVC to tuck into the body cavity. I enlarged the hole for tail light wiring to thread it in



Put the tube in, glued on a cap and drilled and tapped a hole for a 3/8" barbed fitting





Finished shoving it in, capped it and raised it up in the body, made a couple of sheet metal pans to hold it up and pop riveted them in. Later I will put expanding foam in to keep down any rattles.

Schedule 80 PVC is rated for 190 psi. Should handle my 150 psi system nicely

XJwonders

Nice work

XJwonders

What are u gonna do with the old tank?

bad_idea

While PVC is rated for the pressure, it is not rated for compressed gases. The issue is the PVC becomes brittle with age and will blow up unexpectedly one day. Bouncing through the woods/rocks will likely expedite that. Not a huge risk in this application as it's in a compartment to contain the explosion. Other than that issue, awesome idea. I like the access cut through the tail light panel to get it in. I have thought of making an air tank to go in that space but couldn't figure out how to get it in there.

SatiricalHen

I would personally use steel pipe if I was making a pressure vessel like that. Whatever you use make sure you have a drain for it to drain the water out. You can get like remote drains.

4.3L XJ

I will sell it

4.3L XJ

Thanks

penny is all i have left

Yeah when that thing eventually pops that'll be an exciting day, cant say i wouldn't do it myself however. Love the creative space usage.

RockinRonnie

A buddy has a body shop and has the hole shop plumbed with plastic his compressor shuts off at 175 psi. its been there for 20 plus years and has never had a problem so I would not worry to much about it not putting anything but air in it! My 2 cents

bad_idea

Please see the below link from the OSHA site:
https://www.osha.gov/dts/hib/hib_data/hib19880520.html

Excerpt from the link: The Dallas Regional Office has brought to our attention a potential serious hazard existing with the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic pipes for transporting compressed gases in above ground installations. An employee in a Texas plant was injured recently by a rupture in a PVC compressed air line. Plastic projectiles from the point of rupture caused lacerations of the employee's hand. This is noteworthy because the Plastic Pipe Institute, in its Recommendation B dated January 19, 1972, recommends against the use of thermoplastic pipe to transport compressed air or other compressed gases in exposed plant piping.

Article goes on to state OSHA's position against PVC for compressed gas transmission. Your buddy has a OSHA violation on his hands. It is an expensive fine if OSHA does a walk through and finds it. Not to mention the possibility of someone getting hurt or killed. Please don't encourage others to use PVC for compressed gas lines.

RockinRonnie

My bad I did not state pvc but at same time did say it would be okay and I'm wrong to state such! The air lines are plastic but not pvc. Thanks for correcting me

4.3L XJ

I am aware of PVC degradation due to UV rays. Notice the pipe is completely covered and not exposed to any light.

bad_idea

I never intended to derail the thread into a PVC discussion. In your application I do not see a hazard. I just wanted to put the hazards of PVC for compressed gas transmission out there to anyone that may think it is wise to use in different locations. Your use is compliant with OSHA (not that OSHA has any weight in off road vehicle use) because it is well guarded against explosion where it is located.

Smergen

I

4.3L XJ

We all get them sooner or later, hot spots especially when crawling those long slow trails. In my case, it is my muffler. It gets hot enough to make my carpet stink. I know of another XJ that has the same problem. The solution, make a heat shield. There are lots of things you could use, but the best and cheapest I have found is my wife's worn out aluminum cookie sheets. They are double walled and made not to transfer too much heat through and burn the bottom of the cookies. You can see from the construction, the bottom of this one is dimpled, holding the two layers apart and making a good all metal insulator.





I also chose to use self tapping sheet metal screws at the dimples to secure it.

The next little trick is to use a spacer, in this case a 1/4" nut to space the cookie sheet away from the floor thus making another layer with air between it and the shield



I had other goodies to shield on this side of the frame too, so I bent it. I used a sheet metal brake, but they are soft and easy to bend with hand tools



After putting the muffler back in place (red mud and all) it looked like this.



So did it work? Absolutely. I wheeled all day in very warm weather with the windows up and AC going without that hot carpet smell. I am looking forward to more cookie sheets from the kitchen