Bubbajones_ya

Good evening everyone! I think this question is in the correct thread so here it goes:

I convinced one of my friends to get a third gen camaro after I purchased one and mostly restored it.

I currently don't have working AC now (seized compressor/leak), but my car came equipped with it, and I already purchased the accumulator, compressor, condenser, orifice tube, and refridgerant/oil. I am going to keep my original lines/evaporater (does anyone recommend against this?) I have done AC systems before but not on these vehicles.

Anyways, my friend's camaro is an 88 305 RS. It came factory WITHOUT AC, but adding it is a must (here in Arizona, you don't drive cars in the summer without it.)

I haven't found the specifics of what is needed to swap in AC to his car. We already got the blowermotor/Evap box in the engine bay, blower motor/blower wheel (motor may need replacing), the accumulator pressure switch, and we cut the wiring harness from the firewall that has the plugs for the evaporator/accumulator stuff and took that too(didn't know where it was wired inside the vehicle so we got at least half of the harness) but that is all we have so far.

I know he will need the Accumulator, Compressor, Condenser, AC lines, Evaporator, and refrigerant/oil.

My question is, what else is he going to need to convert his Non AC car to an AC car?

Did we grab everything we need, or will he need a different climate control unit on the interior, along with different vacuum lines in the back? Also, is there any wiring we can tap into for the AC compressor in place, or will we have to wire that up separately?


Thank you and hopefully we can get his AC up and running before too long. I know I'm going to be fixing mine this Monday because it's going to start to get hot out here soon.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Not a good plan for your bud's car.

The firewall is different.

BY FAR the eeeeeeeeziest and cheeeeeeeeeepest way to put factory air into a factory non-air car, is to sell the car you don't want and buy one that has what you DO want.

Your plan, no problem though; except that, I would STRONGLY recommend replacing the rubber parts of the lines. You can cut the crimp sleeves off with a wizz wheel or something, put new rubber on, and hold it with 2 A/C hose clamps. Which ARE NOT the same as those weenie things you buy on cards at AZ or whatever: they are MUCH heavier duty and apply more clamping force. I also suggest using R-134A and the correct oil for it (in these systems, the mid viscosity is best, 75 or 100; not 50, not 150) and the red/orange Frod orifice tube. That OT is better suited to a GM R-12 system with R-134A in it, than a GM R-12 one. I have heard that the blue Frod one works well too but I've never tried it, I've always used the red/orange one and got good results. Have em look it up for something like about a 96 Crown Vic.

Ozz1967

iTrader: (4)

I agree with Sofa here. It'll be easier to sell the car and buy another one that came with AC. It's going to cost more than an engine replacement to retro fit AC into a non-ac car.

Bubbajones_ya

Hmm okay. I already bought an orifice tube for my car, and decided to spend a little extra this time around on a variable one (AZ brand that was 20 for my camaro.) I'll look into how old the rubber lines are too. I know the car has had previous AC work done before (it was R134a before it leaked out and stopped working which isn't original), so maybe my lines are much newer. If not, can I use any type of coolant line? It may end up buying new lines all together for the 78 bucks (amazon price) just to ensure I don't mess up fabricating new lines.

If you think a ford red orifice tube would be better, I may return the one I bought and get one of those. I've read some people say variable orifice tubes make a huge difference, then others say they are a complete waste. I am leaning more on the side of them being a waste because if they worked well, I would think more people would recommend them. I figured I give it a try this time around though being it gets hot here and any little thing extra would be nice.

Also, I will have my system set up for R134a (compressor/condensor/ accumulator fittings/oil), but I have heard great things about RedTek r-12a (not R12), which is compatible in r134a systems.

I looked into the legality of that, and it is not EPA regulated and okay to Vent RedTek stuff because its somewhat equivalent to propane used for barbecues (it's not toxic/non ozone depleting.)

Most people will say don't use it in AC systems because of the flammability issue (which is a respectable comment), but since most other countries use it with 0 issues, it sparked my interest. Worst case scenario, if it doesn't cool worth a STUFF if I use it, then I can get rid of it and do a proper charge of R134a without worrying about damaging anything.


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For my friends car, I don't think getting rid of his car and buying an AC equipped one is an option now unfortunately... I suppose we will have a bunch of work cut ahead of us to figure out how to get an AC system in there.

We already did valve stem seals/ complete tune up, brakes, it already had a full complete exhaust system (better y pipe/headers and functioning new cat and slightly bigger diameter pipes) and a little interior work (purchased it for 1500). If he did get a different car, it would almost definitely need all that stuff over again, plus wouldn't have the exhaust. Also, it is manual V8 with a seemingly good functioning T5 which is very difficult to find around here. Hopefully we can manage to set up AC in his car without too much of a hassle. I've done some more difficult wiring and stuff before, so I'm up to the job. Plus, I won't be driving it , I'll just be helping to convert it.


Edit 2: (didn't want to bump the thread again after I just posted) We know he has to spend about $550 on AC parts alone (priced the entire system on amazon) to get a functioning closed system. What else would the expenses be that make it so much more difficult to convert? We are not going to have a shop do any of the work, I have a vacuum gauge and manifold gauge set to do all the work needed.

Finding a manual T5 V8 camaro around here is pretty difficult (in the price range of 1500), so if he got rid of it (which I don't think he will), finding another one would be pretty difficult.

I greatly appreciate your input and advice, but I highly doubt my friend is going to be up to selling the car after he just got it and put work into it. I suppose I better be prepared to have a bunch of work cut out for me (and him) to convert it.



Edit 3: (I sure like to edit) Sofaking, I just saw your post regarding this subject back in 2007 https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...-added-ac.html. Haha, it sure does seem like it won't be an easy task, but I'm up to doing it if my friend is willing to wait to find the parts. He won't be putting AC is right away, he just wants it done within a couple of months.

ssman12

Hello @Bubbajones_ya, did you ever add the AC to your friends Camaro. I also have a 305/ T-5. I'm going to try it myself and would appreciate any advice and pictures you may have. Thanks

Bubbajones_ya

It's been quite a while since I've been on here (enlisted and had to move etc.) but I'm back to doing work on my Camaro again. I know this post is a bit late from when you asked!

We did end up adding AC to his car, be he sold it quite some time ago and he's still back in AZ while I'm currently in Wyoming.

Some advice from when we did it is I'd try hard to get as much of the ducting/box/wiring from a donor car at a junk yard etc. It's been a while so I can't quite remember all the things we did to get it working. I know the computer typically wants to see a signal for AC usage to accommodate the extra drag on the system. If I remember right, the computer may have a pin and/or wire you can tap into to send that signal to the computer with the AC on, but don't quote me on that.

If you have specific questions, you can ask/pm me. I'm not promising I'll remember, but maybe I could help.

BrickHead

I successfully added AC to my '89 Camaro, It's really a bolt-on process, though the dashboard needs to be pulled, and the inner airbox changed if you want to use factory AC controls (the non-ac cars have the vent doors controlled by cables, where the AC cars are vacuum controlled), to get the side vents on the dash the easiest method would be to swap the dashboard as well, but I didn't bother. The only difference on the firewall for me was the AC engine bay airbox has one additional mounting point at the very bottom, and the hole in the firewall is not present to accept the fastener. It's not really a problem though as worst-case scenario a little air from the blower motor will leak into the engine bay.

I actually recorded the whole process and am slowly editing the footage into youtube videos, the first of which is already live, and it shows the differences in the firewall in detail.

CouleeCodger

Thanks for putting this together. I am looking to get A/C into my 91 and have plugged way too much money into my car to just switch to another one, so this info is quite helpful.

Keep it up!

WILL85IROC

nice! i also have to add ac to a non ac camaro, a parts list would help alot , thanks

BrickHead

The parts I used for my conversion were as follows, I'll edit my post if I forgot anything

ENGINE BAY
-Engine Bay Airbox
-Blower motor (they're different for AC cars)
-Evaporator
-Dryer/Reciever (aka Accumulator)
-Both refrigerant hoses
-Condenser
-Compressor
-Vacuum port for intake manifold (3/8 NPT thread for intake manifold, 1/4 inch connection for vacuum hose)
-Vacuum Check Valve
-Vacuum Reservoir
-1/8 inch and 1/4 inch vacuum line

INTERIOR/Electrical
-Heater/AC Control Pannel (Firebird one will fit in a Camaro, it just looks funny, ask me how I know )
-Wiring Harness
-Relay for blower motor (if it did not come with the wiring harness)
-internal airbox
(I did not use the following but they would also be required for a "factory install"
-AC dashboard and ducting
-Internal circulation vent door thing (not sure what it's called, I didn't use it but I got one with the parts I bought, can upload pictures later)

R-134a Conversion
-Orifice tube
-New green o-rings
-Whatever refrigerant, oil, and flush combo you decide to use (consult the R-134a conversion posts for more info)

I hope I haven't forgotten anything. If you don't want to swap out your dash, the AC-style internal airbox will mostly meet up with the original non-AC ducting, you just need a small block off to make it work. I used steel but cardboard or even duct tape would probably do the trick. I also didn't install the internal circulation flap thing, as it takes the place of the passenger side air vent that is controlled under the steering wheel, its a nice feature exclusive to non-AC cars that I wanted to keep. It just means that NORMAL and MAX-AC will do the same thing. You can always open the vent manually. I would highly suggest watching the videos I put together on the process, I don't cover every single step, but it would be a good starting point.

scoobylx

I know it’s been a while on this post but if would I be able to simply keep the non ac box with cable controls over the vacuum ac box? Would it work still. I don’t care about adding the extra side vents. And I have all factory ac components except the behind dash airbox and the hvac control that adds max ac.

BrickHead

Theoretically? Yes. But the main issue is the the AC HVAC controls are also responsible for switching the AC on/off. I toyed with the idea myself, installing a switch somewhere to turn on/off the AC, but decided it’d be easier to swap to the proper HVAC controls.

The difficulty is that without the AC HVAC controls on hand it might be difficult to determine what signals need to go where, as you can’t probe the outputs of the HVAC controls, and you’d also be responsible for fining your own way to connect your switch(s) to the engine bay wiring harness to control the compressor.

Again Im not saying impossible, but the cable-driven air diverter box is not the main hurdle, the HVAC control electronics is.

scoobylx

Understood. I've watched your videos and have been adding ac in my 86 firebird using them I have everything just about connected. Only thing i need to do is make sure the AC compressor will engage (hence me needing the correct hvac control Head) ...I see that these plugs go on the correct hvac controll head.... this same plug runs into my low pressure switch via a green wire then another green i think connects to this blue/black wire then theres a ground black .


of course this is the hvac control head connection

this is the extra connection on my wiring harness that attached to the hvac control head. The brown power wire ran to this then had another brown coming back out.

this is the extra connection again.

scoobylx

yea i figured it out... I see why u told me i need the hvac controls the extra plug connects to it duh.... thanks man