School me on Air Compressor Maintenance

[whateverpratt]

I've been hobby wrenching on cars and trucks on and off for the past 20 years, and I finally got an air compressor. I picked up an old (1963) ~20gal air compressor super cheap. It works great.

What do I need to do for maintenance on this little sucker? I seem to remember people talking about draining them every now and then, and I'm guessing the compressor oil should be changed every now and then.

[truckdude239]

at work we use 2 80 gallon compressors piped tpogether only running one at a time other acts like a storage tank . we drain them every night i change the oil and air fitlers once a year with syn compressor oil both are about 20-25 years old still pumping along

[Jrainman]

You can go to home depot they sell husky compressor oil , they have conventional oil , semi synthestic and full synthetic oils , you can use any of these oils , you should see a drain plug somewhere at the bottom or side of the compressors crank case , drain oil .there also should be a fill plug located high or top of the crank case , also there might be a sight glass on the side of the case somewhere fill new oill to 3/4 up the sight glass , if no sight glass fill to a little over half way up the crank case and your done , check belt tention also and Maintenance is done