Our AC system SUCKS

Many different ways to skin this cat. To me the most obvious and easiest one is to increase capacity. I wonder if making something like a custom slightly overall larger condenser would be an easy endeavor for fabricators.

 

I agree, just like the old R12 systems. Our systems just don't have any margin built into them. Unfortunately the AC designs are going the other way because the governing forces at work don't much care about our comfort. Its all about perceived issues related to the environment and weight reduction in order to chase CAFE requirements.... The next generation of auto AC systems coming soon to a vehicle near you has significantly less refrigerant and will operate at much greater pressures.

 

Would making a loop or two in one of the lines increase the refridgerant capacity enough to make any difference?

 

a loop or two of lines wont hold much

 

Per the title
Actually it Blows

 

There is something which has not been mentioned on going this route that has the potential to become an impending Achilles heel. These compressors are only designed to spin up to certain RPM before they shut off, and increasing its upper RPM limits over what is otherwise safe operating decline limits may be detrimental for the compressor lifespan.

I could be wrong however and simply overanalyzing that one.

Much agreed. They are switching out these new cars to 1234yf and charging some $800 for a service alone. These new systems are becoming way overly engineered and using fancy refridgerants simply because the government keeps demanding more.

 

@Murphinator do you have any update on progress for retrofitting a different blower fan in these trucks?

 

Removed the seal at the back of the hood and it has certainly seemed to help.

 

I have taking the truck back to the dealership and i keep being told the A/C works fine. But i have explained to them that while driving it works just fine, but at an idle or a red light you can tell the difference of the "COLDER" air going away. They have "SUPPOSEDLY" drained and refilled my system each time and they cannot find an issue.

 

I called the dealership and the specs are to be 55 degrees at idle. Now they gentleman i spoke with did say try to keep the A/C on the level before HIGH during the real hot times. As that can cause a bypass and you feel the A/C not to be as cold (as in driving). I will try this out and keep everyone posted.

 

How realistic is it to convert the blower to an analog switch? Like I want to be able to have near infinite speed selections from 0 to 100%.

I hate that the fan only has 4 speeds, the lowest is too high sometimes. I want to pick whatever speed I want.

 

Yeah no thanks r134 is good enough for me.

 

Sounds like a new mod. Who will be the first?

 

FWIW, our compressors are different than the older ones designed for R12 and even some designed for early R134A. Ours are called a swash plate compressor and their design was for higher pressures. Somewhere around here I have a file on these and if I can locate it I will post the specs. It is also a GM (Delphi) compressor and if one seeks out say a Denso it too is the same Delphi with the only difference being the stickers replaced by chimps using a dull screwdriver, really.

 

I have noticed myself that the blower low speed is sometimes too much myself. It is pretty annoying actually.

 

I am strongly contemplating doing that as well as physically opening up the slit of my sport hood scoop to turn it basically into a heat extractor.

 

Yes I have been following this for awhile. First it was that R12 was charged with being environmentally evil and so it was replaced with R134A which was supposed to be the fix for all time but then the powers that be have now decided that R134A is also evil so comes the new 1234yf. Meanwhile those who have revisited the purge of R12 and its sister refrigerants have found it to not be evil after all. But the damage has already been done as millions of poor all over the world have suffered and still suffer.

 

Sadly, I do not. Too much going on right now.

 

I would totally be down to do it if I just had the knowledge or something, I just need to know what the current stock motor if it's possible.

Honestly it really pisses me off that fans are not sold this way in general. The close buddy of mine has a old fan from like the 70s on his reloading station, it just has a knob with no resistance, you can turn it in a smaller increments as you want. The motor speeds at whatever "percentage" you select.

I mean almost every fan nowadays for like a room or a desk or something like that have only two or three speeds and all of them are ridiculously too high or too low.

So basically a potentiometer controlled fan I believe is the correct electronic name.

 

That's exactly what it is called, and I do not see why some thing like that wouldn't not be doable. You can literally use the same knob on your AC head unit housing too if you are slick about it.