bats
Elite Explorer
- Joined
- October 30, 2009
- Messages
- 822
- Reaction score
- 48
- City, State
- NY
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 88 Bronco II
So after a few years with out A/C and the hottest summer recorded on Long Island, I decided something had to be done. It's been so hot lately that the little beast barely gets out except for the occasional early morning beach run. I figured an under dash unit would be perfect. My old Buick has a Mark IV unit which still blows ice cubes 40 years later.
Started researching and attempting to piece everything together with individual components. Ultimately decided to go with a $500 ebay ColdMaster kit. Included just about everything you need to do an underdash install. Based on the dimensions of the box I figured I could cram it in there with some minor trimming. Boy was I wrong. Now I figured some fabrication and finagling would be involved for this project, I just wasn't prepared for how much.
The underdash unit was just too big to fit under the dash. There's a support bar in the way and the blower was bigger than I had planned for. So, I took a cue from one of my vans and installed it on the roof. Through-bolted and siliconed the **** out of it. Doesn't look too terrible and fits with the Frankenstein nature of the truck.
Net battle was the condenser. Required additional trimming and blood sacrifice. Cut out the vertical cross member in front of the rad and had to relocate my trans cooler. There's really good airflow on the trans cooler since a lost of the metal behind it rusted away. Cleaned that up and sealed with Rustoleum.
Lack of foresight on my part when it came to the compressor. I only took it out of the box once just to see how pretty it looked. The kit included a 'Sanden 508 STYLE' from some company based in Panama. Quality seems equivalent though. What I failed to notice is that the compressor mounts with four horizontal bolts. Simple enough, ordered a generic mounting bracket for $40. Also realized that it had a pulley for a VBelt drive instead of serpentine. This could have been remedied by a simple clutch replacement.
However, at the same time my dad's Windstar blew the tranny at just over 200K. We started pilfering it for parts the next day and I grabbed the compressor. Never again am I working on a front wheel drive car. 2 hours to get that damned thing out without being careful at all.
Found that manifold blocks were available for the Ford FS10 compressors. Brilliant!
Wiring everything up was probably the easiest part of the job. Got 30' of high pressure HVAC lines made up using the included fittings. This was the second most expensive part of the install with AC hose being ~$6 a foot. Luckily my local hose shop hooked me up and turned them around sameday.
Started researching and attempting to piece everything together with individual components. Ultimately decided to go with a $500 ebay ColdMaster kit. Included just about everything you need to do an underdash install. Based on the dimensions of the box I figured I could cram it in there with some minor trimming. Boy was I wrong. Now I figured some fabrication and finagling would be involved for this project, I just wasn't prepared for how much.
The underdash unit was just too big to fit under the dash. There's a support bar in the way and the blower was bigger than I had planned for. So, I took a cue from one of my vans and installed it on the roof. Through-bolted and siliconed the **** out of it. Doesn't look too terrible and fits with the Frankenstein nature of the truck.
Net battle was the condenser. Required additional trimming and blood sacrifice. Cut out the vertical cross member in front of the rad and had to relocate my trans cooler. There's really good airflow on the trans cooler since a lost of the metal behind it rusted away. Cleaned that up and sealed with Rustoleum.
Lack of foresight on my part when it came to the compressor. I only took it out of the box once just to see how pretty it looked. The kit included a 'Sanden 508 STYLE' from some company based in Panama. Quality seems equivalent though. What I failed to notice is that the compressor mounts with four horizontal bolts. Simple enough, ordered a generic mounting bracket for $40. Also realized that it had a pulley for a VBelt drive instead of serpentine. This could have been remedied by a simple clutch replacement.
However, at the same time my dad's Windstar blew the tranny at just over 200K. We started pilfering it for parts the next day and I grabbed the compressor. Never again am I working on a front wheel drive car. 2 hours to get that damned thing out without being careful at all.
Found that manifold blocks were available for the Ford FS10 compressors. Brilliant!
Wiring everything up was probably the easiest part of the job. Got 30' of high pressure HVAC lines made up using the included fittings. This was the second most expensive part of the install with AC hose being ~$6 a foot. Luckily my local hose shop hooked me up and turned them around sameday.