Looks like its time to start that air conditioning season again. This time, just like last year, I plan on going through my AC system again and try to improve it.

There are a few things on the market that are supposed to help cool systems, such as more efficent condensors, and smart vov's (variable orifice valve).

I am looking to get together maybe a part list / price guide for these parts and hopefully we make our ac systems cool.

One other aspect to our ac systems is our terrible air conditioning blowers. I attempted a retrofit of the ac blower from a 4th gen, but that didn't quite work out well for various reasons. It is possible to make it work, it was just going to require a little more fabbing than I had initally realised.

In otherwords, our ac blowers basically suck. My high setting feels like the low setting on new cars, and to me, living in Houston, thats rediculous.

Lets see if we can make these cars have some sort of decent air conditioning. PLEASE

 

You know what AC's blow hard is the Toyota ones. I was trying to figure out a way to use one of their motors at one point because GM's blow too slow. It's too darn hot in Florida for that.

What about a voltage converter of some sort to step up the voltage on the motor a bit to spin it faster? I wonder if that would overheat the motor?

 

What makes an AC colder? Is it a bigger condenser? A bigger Compresor? Can the AC be modified to blow colder? The AC in my 86 TA works fine but I have to run it in high all the time. My wifes Toyota AC's blows air that it is probably 10 to 15 degrees colder.

 

Well, one of the major reasons why our ac systems aren't as cold is because they were designed for R12 instead of R134a. Any of our cars that have been converted, just aren't as cold.

After a little bit of research, I have found a few ways to gain a few degrees of cooling on our cars.

One thing is a parallel flow condensor. Our condensors aren't very old, and by upgrading to a newer styled one tends to increase efficently quite a bit, and thereby increasing the cooling.

Smart Variable Orifice Valves also can increase the cooling on our cars. These work by varying the pressure of the orifice tube between idle and moving conditions. It acts like its more than one orifice in your car to provide maximum cooling at all rpm ranges. When you switch to R134A, GM advises you switch orifice tubes also, from the white one, to the yellow one (at least, I think thats the way it goes). By using a variable orifice tube, you don't need to do that. The only downside, is that they are rather expensive, considering orifice tubes are $2 max. These are in the $25 range.

There are some other products out there such as ICE32 which increases the lubrication in the compressor. This frees up the compressor and is supposed to increase cooling also. However I haven't really seen much info on this product, but it sounds like it might work.

A good source of Air Conditioning products is <a href="http://www.acsource.com">AC Source</a>

I found a few decents forums on air conditioning a long time ago, but I can't find it anymore.

I also need to know what size of condensor I can fit in my car. It is reccomended to fit the largest you can, and that what I intend to do.

Our AC blowers are very weak, and I haven't been able to find one that might work better. AC Source sells new ac blowers, but they will require a little bit of fabrication to make it fit. It might be worth it.

 

One reason R134a gets a bad rap is because many shops overcharge the system after the switch. When the switch is done the system is supposed to be filled between 70% and 90% of the original capacity. If the same capacity is kept it wont cool very well.

 

Mine cools excellent with 134a. All I replaced was the compressor when I converted 2 years ago.

You can buy replacement blower motors at autoparts stores. I bought a nice Seimens Westinghouse one from autozone and it blows a little bit harder but still not hard enough.

 

What about the compresor? Are you all running the factory Ac Delco? I have a new Ac Delco, new evaporator, have the shop flush the system put new valves and everything. Cost me a fortune! But ac is not cold enough.

 

Well, I have heard of some alternatives to the smart VOV. The '88 Thunderbird Orifice Valve (Blue) is supposed to help a little bit.

 

the best, most simple method would be one that increased the effiency of the condensor, removing more heat from the system. but thats also an expensive prospect. the best way i have found to cool off is a window shade when im parked, and some good window tint for the windows.

 

It would cost ~$100 for a parallel flow condensor for our cars. That doesn't seem that costly to me. Its tough to find one the exact size. You can get one pretty close though. Its usually best to get the biggest one you can fit.

Our serpentine condensors are pretty old, the newer parallel flow ones work much better.

 

one way to get your a/c to run cooler is have a clean condensor, the cooler your air is the more the a/c can cool the air, also it is generally true that -134a dosen't cool as well as r12. running more voltage to your fan could work BUT it will probabbly fry your motor quicker, how much quicker I don't know, and I really don't know how you would do it seeing as how when you turn the fan on high its getting 12v anyway; you would need some kind of step up transformer or cut the resistance in the wire down as much as possible. just some thoughts

 

you can also try insulating all the hoses on the low pressure side so they don't obsorb engine heat. and therefore creating more heat to need to be released.

 

I just bought a Discount Autoparts replacement compressor. It cools very nicely.

And definitely make sure your hoses are insulated. I just put new stuff on mine and it helped a lot.

 

What about installing a fan in front of the condensor? My wife Toyota has one from the factory, which turns on at the same time the compresor. I also have seen fans in front of condensors, specialy in European cars

 

I think it's just your blower that sucks. My 89 Firebird blows me away on high. It puts out more air on the notch below hi than my 97 Tahoe does on hi.

You might check your blower motor...it could be on it's way out. Usually when they fail, the bearings lock up. If your fan's bearings are going out, they could be causing enough drag to reduce your fan speed. Other things to check would be the blower resistors, the wire connections, and the vacuum doors that direct airflow. I've found that if I put my AC in "max" but don't get it exactly in the slot, half the air goes to my vents, and the other half gets split between the floor and the defroster (very damn annoying, I'm about to replace that control).