vintage air below Stato dash

[308mate]

Hi All,

I'm just about to journey down the road of air con. Just wondering if anyone out there can offer help / advice...

I'm not into the standard air con in the engine bay (ugly and in the way)pano.jpg
WB stato dash in my van. I've got a 304 injected motor. v6 conversions does an alternator / power steering pump bracket for the drivers side (v6 commodore pump). This frees the passenger sidde for a sanden compressor fitted on an alternator bracket. I reckon I've sorted that part out.

The question is, has anyone here fitted a vintage air gen II compact under the dash? Is it adequate to cool the panno? Can it be hooked up to all vents including demister?

Has anyone tried to fit an evaporator into the rear wheel / side panel compartments...?

[Innuendo]

That's a nice mild custom.

Sorry can't help much with your air conditioning question.

[HJRAY]

Sweet colour man

[308mate]

Thanks guys, its been a while since I've been on here. Most of my attention has been on my Torana of late...

I throw up some other photos of the Panno

[wbute]

You can get a bracket to mount the Sanden style compressor without needing to move the alt and power steering pump. The compressor sits neatly on top of the motor. Same as VK Commodore had and late WB with factory air.
Why evaporator in the rear? For rear vents? Won't you need air flow from outside the car through the evaporator? It would suck dust if it drew air from in the rear wheel wells, unlike the plenum chamber.

[damienengland]

I have been tinkering with AC for my WB van. I am trying to fit a modern compressor down low on the RHS of the engine but you seem to have a solid plan for yours. I wanted to create two different zones (i think this is what you are after) and i wanted the rear zone to be run from an electric compressor mounted under the van. Anyway, that got too hard and i am back to running a single engine driven compressor with two separate evaporators, so i get two zones but the engine has to run. One is the factory air from a WB Caprice which would fit perfectly with the dash you have and its integral plumbing. The other is an after market evaporator unit that could provide air for the rear if you could install return air ducts to where its mounted (void areas should be ok) and duct the four outlets to where you want them in the rear. See pic below

20130810_121250.jpg

[utevanwgn]

Hi .
I solved the ac v throttle body conflict problem by cutting the tb flange off and having it welded back on at an angle so it missed the brackets,
As for the vintage air I fitted a similar one that also contained a heating core.
Had to fabricate custom demister and vent tubing .
How well it works depends on how much effort is put into the vent scenario.
I was a bit slack and did not fit a gate on the demister as a result the air flow coming from the vents is a bit feeble.
However on a 40 c day its comfortable .
The idea of fitting an evaporator in the side panel is interesting.
But I was just going to fit another under dash unit to the roof behind the seats and just parallel plumb it with the first one .
I will post some pics of the engine bay tomorrow . Just blanked over the original heater box and ran the hoses around under the guard.
The next step is to fit the injected 304 4L60e and turbos.

[wbute]

Maybe you are better off looking at the electric truck sleeper AC units? Lot of work to cool the back then you have to run the engine to use it.

[308mate]

Thanks guys.

As Utevan mentioned, the problem in the engine bay is the throttle body position, so I think the V6 conversions solution to move the alternator
and put the compressor where it goes is a good one.

I have a catalogue with the same evaporator as you picutre Damo. I think its just an evaporator & has no heater, which could mean that I could keep my existing WB Stato fan & demister & possibly plumb it up un the rear cavities, if it fits. According to my calculations it might be just too large. Have you tried that evaporator for size in those side panels?

I was not really thinking of runnin a split or twin system, although I'm sure the cooling would be amazing. It seems you are saying that the vintage air is adequate Utevanwgn. Which model did you use, how'd it go under the dash?

Cheers in advance

[thatotherguy]

I used a vintage air supercooler in my HQ but the glovebox wouldn't fit back in so I have to make a smaller one ,the unit I used is a large unit and smaller ones are available ,there is a thread on here about it but can't find it at the moment