Just put the finishing touches on converting my 85 TA VIN G from V-belt to a serpentine setup. Documenting here for anyone looking to do this, as I have gotten so much information from TGO that it made this project lots easier. My setup came from my 1988 TPI parts car - I had stripped everything a couple of months ago but had boxed and tagged all the components and hardware, plus lots of pictures. Everything worked fine in the original V-belt setup, except for a missing belt to the AC compressor. I had previously replaced the voltage regulator in the alternator and the power steering pump had no problems. I had two main reasons for doing the conversion - getting the car one step closer to fuel injecting it with the TPI system, and cleaning up the appearance of the engine bay.

Here is what I started with:

Original engine bay shot at the start of the project.
The AC hoses draped over the fan shroud really bugged me. Hard to believe that is how they came from the factory. Just a really unattractive way to deal with hose routing.


88 front accessories prior to removing them in February. Not pretty, but all there.

The 88 parts car was in non-running condition when I got it, so had no idea if anything worked on it. After removing all the accessories, I took the alternator down to NAPA to find out if it worked. It did not pass the tests, so I knew I either needed to replace or rebuild. Turns out I ended up doing both...

I had considered reusing the AC compressor and converting it to R134a as the 88 was still R12, although the system had leaked out some point earlier. After trying to turn the compressor by hand and feeling how stiff it was, plus the fact that everything was pretty old, I opted to dump all the original parts as part of this conversion and replace with new. More details on that below.

 

I wanted to keep the car on the road as long as possible, so I went about working on some of the sub-components before tearing off the 85 front accessories. That included bead blasting and paint all the brackets and the alternator housing, and cleaning and painting the power steering pump (with fingers crossed that the thing actually worked!).

A few before/after shots of the brackets. I have a small blast cabinet and use 80 grit glass beads. To keep the aluminum from oxidizing again, I painted them with cast aluminum engine paint from VHT (SP995). The end result really does look pretty much the same as a freshly-blasted piece. The pulleys and hardware I painted in Duplicolor Low Gloss Black Engine paint.


Driver-side bracket for alternator and power steering pump

All the pulleys

After blasting

This is evidently the only shot I took of the finished bracketry. Damn.

 

Quick aside on the alternator. After repairing the 12SI that was originally on the car with a new voltage regulator, I was feeling confident in my abilities to repair the CS130 from the 88. Armed with some youtube videos and a shop press, I went to work. Disassembled everything down to the bare cases. Hardest part was de-soldering the stator from diode assembly.

Previously remanufactured unit. I think this one came from Autozone?

Everything completely disassembled and ready for blasting and paint.

All done. Shiny and pretty!

I used a rebuild kit from Amazon. Victory Lap GMA-03 came with the diode assembly, voltage regulator, bearings, etc for around $14. Since the voltage regulator I replaced on the 12SI was around the same price, I figured this was a great deal. Never went back to test at NAPA, but once I had the system installed on the car, fired it up. Alternator put out around 14.5 volts... for about 3 minutes. Then stopped charging. Was also getting pretty hot to the touch. Came off the car and I bought this one: Premier Gear - PG7917

Brand new alternator, most assuredly made in China (I'm guessing). Was $63 and comes with a 1 year warranty. Too good of a deal to pass up. Arrived, and looked just like the one I had spent all that time cleaning, blasting and painting.

New Premier Gear alternator on top. My rebuilt one on the bottom. Very impressed with the appearance of the PG unit.

Unit charging great

 

The power steering pump was treated to a really good cleaning and light sanding before priming and painting. Kept the openings plugged while doing the cleaning as I didn't want anything getting unexpectedly into the pump mechanism. There are slight differences between the 85 V-belt pump and the 88. I'm not certain if the clocking is different, as I forgot to compare the units side by side. However, the low pressure return line inlet is pointed in a different direction. I had to trim up the line coming back from the cooler, but that was it.

Oily, gross mess.



I couldn't find a single picture of the finished product, so imagine the picture above in black and you get the idea.

On test runs, the power steering pump is working great, so good news there.

 

Removing the front accessories from the 85 was fairly straightforward. After draining the coolant I first removed the fan shroud, fan and radiator. Then popped off the compressor and hoses, alternator, and power steering pump. Nice to have all that open room in the front of the engine!


Everything cleared out, except AC condenser. That came out later.

Since I had the engine stripped down this far, I figured it was a good time to see if I could confirm the cam specs I'd gotten from Jasper. Pulled all the plugs to make turning the engine over easier, bolted up my cheapo degree wheel that I've had for years and never used, and mounted my dial indicator to the exhaust and intake rockers.


Far from a perfect setup, but worked well enough to confirm I've gotten a small, factory-style camshaft in the block. Going in, I knew I wasn't going to be replacing the cam at this point, this was more for education purposes.

 

After this was done, I got to put new, clean stuff on. That went really quickly as everything was ready. I ordered a new AC condenser from Amazon that had been rumored to be a parallel-flow unit, better for R134a. Excited to say that it is! It is a Spectra 7-3231 and is a bargain at $78. For anyone wanting to purchase, link is
Also purchased a new, reverse-flow water pump (AC Delco 252-719) and painted that the same low gloss black to keep it from turning to rust on the outside like the original.

After buttoning up the front accessories, I found that the original brace that tied the alternator to the intake manifold wouldn't work as my manifold did not have a bolt hole in the same location. There was the bolt hole that the original AC bracket was braced to, so I decided to fabricate a brace to connect the two pieces. I bought a length of 3/4" EMT tubing from Home Depot for a couple bucks. After lots of measuring, I cut a piece and smashed the ends down so I could then drill a bolt hole. Turned out ok in the end, painted black to hide it a bit.

Precision machining!

Finished product, prior to paint.

 

Setup with the R4 compressor before swapping in the Sanden.
So now, everything was mounted. Following threads I found on TGO, I bought a serpentine belt that would be the right size since I was not running a smog pump. 6PK2460 - fit like a charm. Put all of about 15 miles on the belt before needing to change it after putting in a Sanden AC compressor.

 

While working through the accessory mounting, I was also moving wires around. The alternator and AC condenser switch sides, so those wires needed to be swapped. I had also decided to move the battery from the passenger to driver side as that is how the 88 was setup and I had the complete wiring harness to move everything around.

The other, slightly more involved part was wiring up the electric fans. While my car came with a clutch-driven fan, maybe the VIN G cars had an electric fan installed? I'm not certain, but there were relays in place that appeared to be part of an electric fan system as they matched the wiring diagrams in my FSM. As I was converting everything to the 88 harness, I moved all the wiring from the relay by the driver-side firewall to the passenger front, by the headlight. Past wiring has been atrocious on this car, so I took the opportunity to fish out some of the wires that had been left dangling and poorly tied up. There were several sensor connectors for the original computer-controlled carb that were left haphazardly around. Removed all those and taped off the wires inside the harness bundle.

My primary goal with the fans was to wire them up as the 88 system was wired so that everything is in place when I convert to the 88 TPI system. To that end, the primary fan relay is triggered by a thermo switch in the intake manifold (more on that later). The secondary fan is triggered by either the AC being turned on, or the second thermo switch located in the passenger head. I've always like car wiring and soldering, so this was fun to do.

 

Here is what happened on the thermo switches to turn on the primary fan. I had done LOTS of reading here on TGO and made purchased a FS111. I clearly did not understand how the switches work - turns out they need to hit the higher temperature (in the case of the FS111 - 225*) before the switch closes, and it stays closed until it hits the lower temperature (208*). Also, I had changed my thermostat from 180 to a 195 unit I had from an earlier project.

I fired up the car and let the engine warm up. Temperature climbed and climbed and the fans never turned on. I had done plenty of testing first, grounding the signal wire for each and the fans worked, so I knew the trouble had to be in the switch. Temps went as high as 240 before I shut the car down. Called NAPA and they provided a replacement free of charge, although it took almost a week for it to arrive (I miss the days when stores kept inventory on hand!).

The second switch worked fine, but this is where I learned how the switches worked. My own fault for not learning about it sooner, but I the car got warmer than I wanted it to be by the time the fan kicked on. So, I went back to the drawing board. Bought a switch that came on at 200 and off at 185 from Amazon (Parts Square ) and I put the 180* thermostat back in. I also moved the FS111 to the passenger head as the signal to turn on the secondary fan if temps reach 225*. I figure that is plenty warm enough.

Everything tests out as it should, fan comes on right at 200 and cools it down. Will be doing a test run this afternoon to make sure everything stays cool in this Texas heat.

Fan switch with the groovy red top and white wire running to the primary fan relay.

 

Midway through my conversion, I had decided that to swap out my R12 compressor for a Sanden unit. I had though initially about just converting the R12 compressor over to R134a, flushing the system and charging it up with the new refrigerant. Then, I realized I have no idea how to do any of that. My uncle LOVES air conditioning stuff and would normally come over and help, but as he is in Houston and I'm in Austin, and times in Texas are not good to be out and around... I went with idea #2.

There is a great thread on TGO by darbysan where he details building a Sanden system. Link is here. I read through that several times and figured I could make that system work. Sourced a compressor from a Sanden dealer on eBay for $205 and brackets on eBay for $70 (prices include tax and shipping). From RockAuto, picked up a dryer, pressure switch and orifice tube for around $25. I'm using the liquid line and evaporator from the 85.

Mounting the Sanden was a little tricky and required me to get some other mounting hardware from Home Depot. The main reason for this was that I did not want to drill out the threads in the factory mounting brackets. Wasn't a huge deal, just took some head scratching to get dialed in. The other hurdle on mounting the Sanden was that I wanted to use the factory brace that ran from the back of the R12 compressor to the exhaust manifold stud. The Sanden sits almost in the same place as the original compressor, but enough back that I had to grind out the holes just a bit for the brace to properly fit.


The brace is so close to fitting properly it hurts. Cutting off a bit at the top where it made contact with the compressor and clearancing the holes on each end helped it fall into place.

The Sanden sits just a bit farther out from center than the R4 compressor and needed a longer belt. I found the correct size to be the original, factory length belt for our cars - 6PK2491. If you are running a smog pump, this belt will probably not work, but without the smog pump, fits perfectly.

 

That's pretty much it for this part of the project. Everything sounds good in the accessories, fans kick on when they are supposed to. No complaints!

Forgot to mention the new upper hose I needed. Gates 21675 is the factory hose for TBI cars from 88(?) through 92. My original hose got way to close to the alternator for comfort.

 

Nice Job!

 

Great writeup! Mind if I ask what specific Dupli-color paint you used for the accessory brackets? I see a listing for DE1650, but I wanted to make sure that's the right stuff.

My block, heads, and valve covers are black, and my headers, intake, and timing cover are flat silver/aluminum. I was leaning towards black brackets but after seeing yours I think that natural aluminum color is the way to go.

 

Oops! I lied, turns out the cast aluminum is from VHT, not Duplicolor. That's what I get for doing this at my desk from memory! {Corrected in the earlier post}

VHT SP995

 

Awesome, thanks for double checking!

 

Looks great! Bummer about the alternator repair not working. Glad you got it sorted out though.

 

I was honestly pretty bummed out when I had to place the order for the replacement from Amazon. So was thrilled when the new u it looked almost identical to the one I had spent so much time to rebuild. Looked at the rebuild as a learning experience, and the rebuild parts that didn't end up working only cost about $15.

 

did I miss an update on the ac system? You mention installing the Sanden compressor. What did you do for the lines/hoses? I've read that older R12 hoses are made of different material than the R134 hoses because the molecule sizes are different and that an R134 molecule will leak out of the R12 material. (think R12 as a softball, R134 as a golf ball) I assume that you had custom hoses made. I heard Oreilly will make them for you. How did you solve the rest of the build?

What has happened since? Assuming you had it charged with R134; what are your results?

 

I used the original R12 hoses to the compressor. I have the same understanding about the molecule size - so far it has worked very well. Once the system was charged, it blows nice and cold. Been over a year, so at least the gas has held in the system for that long! Having custom hoses made wouldn't have been a bad idea, though. Didn't think of it.

Yes, system was charged with R134.

Fire over any other questions on the specifics, ill be happy to.help!

 

I assume you mean you used the lines from the 88 into your 85 and it fit the sanden compressor. That part is what I should have specified since I would like to do something similar myself.
I have a currently carbed vehicle with an R4 compressor that I would like to convert to tpi and serpentine system so thanks for posting your experiences, it's very helpful. My current AC lines also pass across the radiator, like the original 85 AC lines did.

When you purchased your receiver/dryer, did you buy the OEM replacement with the threaded R12 adapter or did you buy a different one that has the quick disconnect R134 adapter? I only see the R12 type for sale, which seems silly to not offer both since the adapters are probably why my own setup lost the R134 charge after sitting over the winter.

 

I did purchase a dryer that was built for R134. I think from Rock Auto.

The 88 AC lines fit the Sander unit perfectly.

Any other details you need, just let me know. Will be happy to help!

 

Thanks for the great write up. I am currently doing this switch on my 85 camaro, going from mechanical fan to dual ls1 fans. What did you do about the electrical? I am looking to add electral fan harness with relays, but not sure what to use.

 

Been so long, I had to reread this thread and then go out to the car to remind myself what I did!

I used the complete wiring harness from the 88 parts car that had the electric fans and TPI from the factory. In the interim between installing the fans and then the full TPI conversion, I used thermostatic switches that were then connected to the factory relays. Once I converted to TPI, I then reconnected the original harness with the ECU controlling the high- and low-speed fans. I believe from the factory that one of the relays mounts near the air filter and the other near the radiator.

If you are going with your own, custom setup, then you'll just need some beefy relays and heavy gauge wire to run between the battery, relay, and fan motor. I would think there would be lots of threads for swapping ls1 fans into cars given how often those engines are swapped in.

Not sure if I'm providing enough detail for what you're looking for - if there are any specific questions you have about my install, let me know and I'll dig thru my pictures and notes to help. In the five years (holy cow!) since the install, I've had zero problems with the setup.