Another A/C question

chromehound · Jul 10, 2011

I'm trying to get some colder air out of the old truck and working through the steps. I put a thermometer into the vent to the right of the climate controls and read 70 cruising around at 45mph or less and ~60 at 55mph - outside it's 99. Now I am wondering if the Dieselsite shutoff for the A/C is going to do the same thing as this and if I'd be wasting money or if it might help-

I'm going to hook up a manifold tester to check my pressures if I can find some time of day when it's not over 90. I've found no leaks in the system and when I hook up my cheap-o gauge to the low side I get a reading of 55psi on a 95deg day sitting at idle in the drive way. This seems high from what I've read.
I'm really at a loss and don't want to throw money at something that's not broken and the shops around here want to just re-charge the system and I don't think it needs charging due to the pressures I've seen so far and really don't want to replace everything in the system.

PsRumors · Jul 10, 2011

The Diesel site valve will do the same thing you have there but look better, imho

chromehound · Jul 10, 2011

Thats what I figured, the only reason for that big mess is so that if the heater core starts leaking I can shut it off and bypass it until I can replace it. It's not pretty but saves a big mess in the event of a leak, which always seems to happen to me on either the hottest or coldest day of the year.

Tom S · Jul 10, 2011

I put the 4 way valve on mine. I think it goes to an Aerostar or a Ranger. It helps with the AC but it really makes the vent postion more usable. I taped into a different vacuum line then the typical one so that it shuts off coolant in vent.

Tom

Tom S · Jul 10, 2011

Tom S said:
This is mine. The hose on the right where you can read the words Gates goes to the hose that comes off the head. The other hose goes to the top of the water pump. You can see the flow arrow in the picture.

A closer look. Since I used the blue line in the winter I just pull the vacuum line off the actuator and plug it into the rod that show in the picture. Then it all works just like the factory made it. I like these valves that are more metal. I think the plastic ones look like they might break. A two port valve could also be used here. I just chose this back when I did this mod.

I used the blue line under the dash which cut off the flow of coolant in vent, AC, max AC. I unplugged the clear looking connector from the actuator and put that on a tee. I then used vacuum to run from the actuator to my valve under the hood. The tee is spliced into that line. I did not have to cut anything by doing it that way.

Happy to answer questions from that point

chromehound · Jul 10, 2011

The big thing I don't like about my valves is sometimes in the morning a little heat would be good for defrost but I'm usually to tired to pop the hood and switch the valves so something more automatic would be nice but I don't want to ditch the valves in case of a leak. It'd be nice for mine to be more automatic and when I get around to re-doing my motor I definetly want something cleaner but for now this will do.

Ok I think I follow how you did yours Tom, I get all the under hood stuff but the last pic is from where under the dash?

Tom S · Jul 10, 2011

It is on the passenger side towards the hump. I like the vacuum setup for just that reason. Colorado has the changing weather to where you can need heat and AC in the same day. I do not use the valve in the winter as I love vent heat more then floor heat. I just unplug the line under hood in the winter and block it off.

chromehound · Jul 10, 2011

Well hopefully in a couple months I'll be enjoying that weather out there.....

I'll have to look into that type of setup after I figure out the rest of my A/C issues so I can move and redo my emergency shutoff valves since they are not in the best of poitions now and have an automatic setup over my current manual deal.

old man dave · Jul 12, 2011

The four port valve is from a early-mid 90's Ford Ranger pickup. I took the white vacuum line off of the heater door vacuum operator, put a 1/8" tee into the end of the vacuum line, put a 1" stub of hose from the tee to the new four port valve operator and enough 1/8" line from the other leg of the tee back to the door vacuum operator. This way you don't have to cut the factory white vacuum line as the original method did.

chromehound · Jul 19, 2011

Well I got tired of screwing with the A/C and took it to a buddy of mine at T.O. Haas. They found a small leak at a connection and that it was ~1lb low. They fixed the leak, evacuated and recharged the system and now I get ~58* in the vent at 85* outside with 62% humidity. Hopefully going to pull the blower this weekend and clean all the crap out since I'm sure it hasen't been done. The thing I've noticed lately is there is no differance between normal and max A/C as far as temp or air flow.

zilla68 · Jul 20, 2011

just remember humidity plays a HUGE part in the cooling ability of your system. with that much humidity you might not see an improvement until the humidity goes down. I have actual numbers somewhere, that show the difference between 0 humidity and 50% and its huge.

chromehound · Jul 20, 2011

Yeah humidity sucks. In the a.m. I can get it down ~50*ish but in the afternoon, well my A/C got the afternoon off since it couldn't get under ~73* out the vent and I just dropped all 4 windows.

Just goes to show procrastination dosen't pay-could've worked on it this spring but didn't.

zilla68 · Jul 21, 2011

I think you have other issues, 73 is terrible, I think the most you would see is a 10 degree increase in temp at the vent

chromehound · Jul 21, 2011

I know there is more problems but $ is the big limiting factor now. As soon as I can afford it I trying to decide if I should take it to a shop and get everything replaced or if I should do it myself - $ wise myself is better but agrivation wise the shop is better. Gotta go through all the little tricks first to see if it's a simple problem before I do anything high $ wise.

zilla68 · Jul 21, 2011

here's what I would do, take it to a shop, have it diagnosed then at least replace the part or fix it yourself.

what were your gauge readings

chromehound · Jul 21, 2011

Well the guys who did the evac and charge said that all the big componets (compessor, evaporator, etc) seemed to be in working order. Yesterday was over 100* with high humidty and it didn't work for crap, today it's only been in the mid 80s and it pulls down to 50*. It may have to take a backseat for now due to $ issues.

zilla68 · Jul 21, 2011

something you can do for free, is pull the cover off the evap core and clean it out really good. When i did mine, it had a ton of crap on/in it, including a blow pop sucker wrapper stuck to it, lol.