vintage air system

[towjoe]

Has anyone installed one of these systems in there non ac truck? how difficult was it, and how would you rate it? I have a 81 K30 wrecker that never had ac, but I can't get anyone to drive it since it got up around the 90's here already. last guy to drive it used excuse that customer about had a heat stroke that he picked up riding in it while towing his car. I have plenty of donor parts to convert it over to factory air, but hate to cut on firewall. Compariably is it easier to use stock parts or just spend money on newer system

 

[bucket]

Let me borrow it, I'll drive it without complaining about the heat

You don't have any trucks laying around with an aftermarket add-on AC setup? I've never done the swap either way, but the Vintage Air setup seems simpler to me than swapping in all the factory AC stuff.

 

[towjoe]

Only truck I have with a aftermarket ac system is my military truck. Someone at military up fitted it with ac. I can buy whole new kit for $1250 not sure just looked simpler. I have a 86 K20 coming up on chopping block that has a complete system to transfer over. Just not sure I want to take truck out of service a week or 2 while I up fit it.

 

[DREAMER]

Vintage air...drill 2 holes in firewall, bolt in a few things charge it with freon and you're cool as ice. Factory a/c...measure twice, cut a big square, drill a few holes install a/c and MAYBE it'll work...it's over 25 yrs old.

 

[chengny]

I have done this conversion (install factory air) a few times now - it is really not that tough. The biggest time saver you can do is to remove the RH wheel housing (AKA inner fender). It takes a couple of extra hours at the start, but the time you save (and the quality of the end result) is really worth it. Most recently it was on a 1 ton lumber yard truck I am restoring/upgrading:

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If you decide to go for it - bump this. I have developed a couple of tricks that help ease the pain of modifying the firewall. A couple of days work - with the inner out of the way - and you should look something like this:

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[towjoe]

I figured be easiest to pull right fender to do it. And as you said hardest part would be cutting firewall. I'm waiting on my donor truck to come back in, guy up the road took it to his shop to pull axles and transmission. I have several other donors, but I know this one has the complete and still sealed system

 

[chengny]

Grab it - they work great. Other than sealing off the heater blend door opening and creating one for the evap coil outlet, there are no modifications required. Everything is plug and play.

Don't forget the all the pieces of duct work, wiring and vacuum harnesses.

The biggest challenge sometimes is finding the correct compressor bracketing for whatever engine you are running.

The condenser is easy, it just drops in between the radiator and the grille ( a couple of condenser specific mounting pads and brackets are required - grab them. They are hard to find sometimes too.)

 

[towjoe]

both trucks have 350 small blocks. I have big block ac mounts, along with a couple of 6.2. Parts are not a issue, time is what concerns me. I can't afford for truck to be apart a couple of weeks while job gets done

 

[robert8096]

I am in the middle of a VA install. Mine was an AC truck and I welded up the original AC holes and started from scratch. Easy install so far. Everything is labeled well and its a complete kit down to the hoses all ready crimped. It also comes with plates to block off any open areas in your existing firewall.

Got mine from this guy on Ebay. Call and talk to him, I got a better price shipped than the price on the listing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111006240469?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Pic of my firewall ready for the kit.

 

[chengny]

Do it in stages to avoid down time.

When you know you can take the truck out of service for a couple of days, pull the RH inner and make the FW mod. That is by far the bulk of the entire conversion.

At that point, pass the wiring and vacuum harnesses through their associated penetrations in the FW (this is a simple step but it is way harder to do after the airhandler is assembled to the FW).

Change the HVAC control panel from "heat only" to the new AC type control panel. Connect the electrical and vacuum harnesses to it. Connect the power lead on the electrical harness to the fuse block. There are 3 vacuum hoses that connect to 2 actuators on the cab side of the air handler. It is much easier to make those connections before the inside air handler is assembled to the FW. Here is the vacuum schematic:

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Assemble as much of the duct work that attaches to the airhandler as you can. Again, this is way easier to do before mounting the AH to the inner FW.

Then, you can assemble both sides of the airhandler to the FW and re-install the inner fender.

On the engine side, hook up the electrical harness to the blower relay, blower motor, low pressure cutout switch. Connect your heater hoses.

Plug off the end of the tubing that goes to the outside air intake damper (BTW that damper motor is located under the wiper cowling and will require an additional hole in the FW for it's vacuum hose).
Plug off the hose that will control the reirc valve as well.

You can deal with these two assemblies at some later date.

Done. You will at that point have a functional HVAC system (with no AC of course but heat and defrost will work).


Then, when you have time, the refrigeration components of the AC system can be installed and activated.

 

[towjoe]

It don't scare me to do the original swap, just was curious if it was worth the money to buy a new vintage air kit instead. My brother is putting vintage air on a 71 nova. My big issue I seen was his hoses were not crimped already.

 

[chengny]

Worth the money?

Let's see; the two options seem to be:

1. Spend over 1200 dollars on an aftermarket add-on kit
2. Spend basically no money on a factory system

Figure the same number of hours labor to install whichever one you go with.
And, when finished, assume equal cooling capacity from either system...

If it were me, I'd have to say no - it is not worth the money to buy a vintage air system.

 

[350runner]

X2. If only do it if s space for the install was an issue...
And having to get the hoses crimped.wow

 

[towjoe]

I wonder about using a K5 or a suburban as a donor? do they have a better cooling capacity?

 

[chengny]

I think some Suburbans might have a rear A/C system. In that case, the compressor would be bigger and there would be an auxiliary evap/blower somewhere in the back.

But the firewall mounted evap coil in all these trucks is the same size - and the size of the evap coil is the limiting factor as far as BTU capacity.

Honestly Joe, you don't need to worry about the stock A/C system not being able to cool the cab down. The compressor/evaporator are plenty big, the condenser is huge and given the relatively small size of the space to be cooled - the system will cycle on/off even on the hottest days.

I had a picture that I took (lost it) of an HVAC thermometer stuck in the center vent of my old truck. It was after I had just finished installing a factory A/C system. I checked the system performance on a like 85 degree day (standard test condition).

The air from the center vent was running between 38 - 42 degrees as the system cycled on and off. The temp in the cab wont be that low of course, but it was easily in the low to mid 60's.

Trust me on this - as long as you don't have massive outside air leakage (from say, big holes in the floor, no weather stripping on the door frames or completely wasted cab corners) - the stock A/C will work great. Just be sure and do a good neat job on cutting the opening in the firewall. That is where the blend door seals the hot air side from the cold air side.