48 replies to this topic

[Torana 202]

Is it a 6 or 8 and do you have the Mini or Compac unit? The Mini fits neatly under the passenger side of the dash and works a treat!

[Cook]

Hi Torana 202. I presume the question is for me.  I have a 308 and bought a 2100 series with fittings exiting on side of evaporator, as opposed to out through the firewall.  From memory the compact unit wasn't much smaller and I have seen them under passenger side but wanted to avoid that if I could.  Cheers Ron

[Cook]

Sorry guys, it's been a far while since I originally bought the unit and it isn't Vintage at all.  It's a Hurricane unit model IP2100.  Old age!!!!!

[ls2lxhatch]

ls2lxhatch did you have any problems with frost or condensation at the base of the windscreen when using A/C seeing as those vents would have been open all the time? Got a similar unit (Ashdown Ingrams' OEX brand EVX219) and just need to do the spacer and ducting for demister, but was just worried about the frost.

 

The cars is not finished so I have not run the A/C. 

 

I have never seen frost caused by setting the vents to demist in any of my cars that have factory air. A/C is usually the quickest way to remove fog from the inside of the windscreen. In one of my cars with factory air is used to regularly have the A/C with the vents set to demist to reduce the heat pouring off the windscreen in summer.

 

With the setup I have in the Torana the bulk of the airflow will be out of the front vents. I expect that I would have to close the front vents to get a significant airflow out of the demist vents.

[ben23]

Yeah I figured most of the flow would be out of the front vents anyhow. Cheers!

[Ando]

I'm doing this right now & mucked around with a few different mock-ups.. I mounted the AC compressor low using a second Torana alternator bracket & flipped it over. Made some plates to suit a fixed position & the PS pump pivots to tension the V belt.

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[76XSS]

lets hope my dad dosn't fail his engine.

 

When i got home from school his engine looked much better than before he added an air filter and the engine just looked so good with it. Lets hope that my dad's engine will be ready in 2 moths and ready for Torana fest 2017.              

whats best without an aircon when ur hot?

[Marks LXTorana]

Hi Ando (or anyone else that can help), I was looking for an example low mount passenger side compressor set up as I am about to do the same. Did you need to move the oil pressure sender from the oil pump to get clearance? Do you have any photos part-assembled to get a better idea?

 

I have a 304 block/VN heads with a Rare Spares bracket for the low mount alternator on the driver side, so I am going to try that it to test fit the compressor and hopefully buy another if it suits.

 

 

I'm doing this right now & mucked around with a few different mock-ups.. I mounted the AC compressor low using a second Torana alternator bracket & flipped it over. Made some plates to suit a fixed position & the PS pump pivots to tension the V belt.

[Ando]

G'day Mark,

 

I lay back the sender with an elbow. Either 45 or 90 degrees, whichever works best. 

 

You can also use a sandwich plate between the pump & the filter.

 

I've done a few now. First one I did was flipping the alternator bracket.

 

Then I started using plates & spacers as in the photo which was mocked up before making proper spacers.

 

I use alloy tube & a pipe cutter to make the temporary spacers when I'm working out pulley alignment.

 

Hope this helps..cheers.

 

 

 

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Edited by Ando, 07 December 2019 - 10:26 AM.

[yel327]

I just bought one of these for my HK, good stuff if you have a SBC but they don’t do Holden V8. I bought the middle one at the top, they had a special in them last month. https://wheelswithin...y&path=21_31_91

[Ando]

Here's a couple AC & PS systems I've done on my cars.

 

It's one of those jobs you just have to figure out for yourself to suit your available space & application.

 

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Good luck

 

[Ando]

Yel327, your spoiled for choice when playing with Chevy motors. Poor old plastic just gets forgotten about lol

 

The latest system I've done was to use separate V-belts for the AC & PS units. 

 

I run the belts off the crank rather than the water pump.

 

The idler pulleys slide in plate slots to tension belts.

 

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[yel327]

In a HK-HJ you’d not even consider a Holden V8, so cheap and easy to use a SBC, and making a 350-400ci engine is easy and cheap. To build a 377ci engine with 4 bolt mains, alloy heads etc is so cheap it isn’t funny. For example the 3.75” stroke forged crank ready to go out of the box was less than $800, cast ones are less than $300. The 4 bolt standard bore block cost me $250. In a way it is a shame that Torana never came with a SBC so it would be easy if you wanted to go that way, but I do admire the effort and dedication to build stuff like those photos above.

[Marks LXTorana]

G'day Mark,

 

I lay back the sender with an elbow. Either 45 or 90 degrees, whichever works best. 

 

You can also use a sandwich plate between the pump & the filter.

 

I've done a few now. First one I did was flipping the alternator bracket.

 

Then I started using plates & spacers as in the photo which was mocked up before making proper spacers.

 

I use alloy tube & a pipe cutter to make the temporary spacers when I'm working out pulley alignment.

 

Hope this helps..cheers.

 

 

 

IMG_4589.JPG

Thanks Ando and everyone for the replies. Yes the plate and spacers is where I am playing at the moment although it gets tricky once it is all in the car! I had the compressor located similar to how you have it in your photo although I noticed the chassis rail will interfere with the hose connectors. It really is a case of playing around with some cardboard jigs until stumbling on a set that gives everything clearance, then making the proper bracket from that. Due to the lack of space for the compressor to be hinged I may need to add an idler to tighten the belt. Any hints on the easiest approach to that???

Edited by Marks LXTorana, 08 December 2019 - 10:49 PM.

[axistr]

To mount the compressor I used pulleys listed for a chev engine and did a couple of small mods to brackets sourced from a VR-VT to suit a Holden V8.  IMG_20140719_093055_640.jpg   112.96K   22 downloads

[Marks LXTorana]

Well I installed my a/c system over the Christmas break and will be happy to share some photos once I remember how to (do I need to provide a link from Dropbox or similar?). I had it gassed up and happy to say it pumped out a very cold -12 deg C at the evaporator when the tech tested it.

 

Just wondering what do you do to compensate for the drop in RPM when you switch the a/c on (or when the thermostat turns it on)? Currently I have increased the idle to suit when on although this means the idle is high with no a/c. I am running a 700 DP Holley.

Edited by Marks LXTorana, 12 January 2020 - 05:26 PM.

[neglectedtorana]

I don't know the standard for increasing the idle but I remember having a 12v solenoid on a Kingswood that acted on the idle stop.

Might have been for uncertainties when cold or something I can't remember but that sort of thing could work off a relay to slightly increase idle

https://www.ebay.com...redirect=mobile

[yel327]

Those idle solenoids were for pollution engines. Pre pollution autos used full vacuum on the dizzy to advance the dizzy at idle to overcome the converter, but on pollution ones you couldn’t get full advance until the block and the water had got to operating temperature, so they used that solenoid. Can’t remember how it worked on manuals. It could definitely work for A/C too, but ugly looking things though.

[Marks LXTorana]

Thanks for the responses, I hadnt thought about a solenoid but it makes sense now. It seems the off-the-shelf version requires a blip of the throttle to activate. I may need to do some thinking...

[axistr]

You could fit a vacuum solonid in the dissy vacuum advance hose circuit. Just tap into the wire that goes to the a/c compressor to activate it. I used a vac solonid off a Toyota hilux around 1988/2004 when I had c carby on my hatch. You will need to use a one way value in the vacuum circuit.

[yel327]

^^That would work unless you already have the dizzy vacuum advance connected to full vacuum already. If it is on ported vacuum (manual) that vacuum switch idea will work a treat. It is actually what GMH did to the 350 engines in HQ once they started to build them for ADR27 compliance around 8/73. They put a temperature switch on the top radiator hose to switch full vacuum onto the dizzy to increase idle speed and thus pull more air through the radiator to increase engine cooling - the idle screws were fixed and made the engine run leaner and hotter than before. It was the pre-cursor to the solenoid idea on ADR27A cars.

[Marks LXTorana]

Thanks for everyone's input. Ive been doing some thinking and like the idea of a vacuum advance. I found a "normally closed" solenoid that might be suitable to put in line between carby and distributer. What are your thoughts?

 

I could run this from the same activation feed for the compressor. Seems to have the appropriate operating temp range etc...

Edited by Marks LXTorana, 14 January 2020 - 11:35 AM.

[Marks LXTorana]

Well I bought the solenoid and hooked it all up trying to keep it discrete. I connected the active wire to the A/C trigger wire that goes to the compressor so it should turn on and off with the thermostat. My only concern is the vacuum advance might have been disabled in the MSD distributor. There is a guide on how to do this in the instructions although I thought it would normally be working. I didn't notice any change in idle. My other thought is maybe the big cam it has might not give it enough vacuum?

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