A/C mod for cooler air

It becomes a liquid. All a refrigeration system does is move heat from one place to another that's why your AC condenser is so large to get rid of the heat. The return line will be cooler the evaporator is less that 100% efficient but that does not matter because it has all ready done all that it's going to do. If you want to insulate some thing do the truck that is where the heat is coming from vehicles are hard to cool sitting in the sun on a black surface the AC unit is large enough to cool a house.

 

sooo where is that line located and how many are there?

 

Now, that WOULD help. Along with hosing the bugs and dust out of the radiator and condenser regularly.

What I did that made a huge improvement to summer interior temps - tinted the rear 3 windows with 5%.

 

When you compress a gas it stays a gas, it just gets hot. You can't compress a liquid.

Yes, the biggest cooling event in the system is at the expansion valve where it rapidly expands releasing heat, however when air isn't flowing through the condensor and isn't cooling the charge before it gets to the expansion valve, the system is not running as efficient as it could be.

 

Thank you to the guys with intelligent posts. I love learning new things.

 

the best upgrade is a efan after installing mine heat up is alot faster a/c is like Antarctica and overall performance is much better. its adjustable too. ffdynamics is where i purchased mine

 

Ii had this issue when I first got my truck and thought I needed freon or was going to have to take it to a shop. Turn out to be the condenser coil was dirty/plugged up. I took off the little plastic piece on top of the radiator, stuck a small stick or piece of wood in there and got off most of the junk plugging it up. Then I took my hose and sprayer and preset washed it from the front, and checking in between the crevice and poking more stuff out. That's all I needed! Been like that for 4+ years, never had to take it to an ac shop. Might wanna try this.

 

I don't understand how heat up is any faster. Is it a pusher set up? I guess that could block the radiator airflow causing it to heat up faster.

 

huh got pics what you talking about?

 

I'm betting he removed his factory belt-driven fan and viscous clutch, and installed an electric fan with a thermo switch and A/C high pressure switch.

 

Yeah, that's true. The factory fan is always on, der.

 

yep. alot more efficient

 

Quite right you can not compress a liquid but you can compress a gas. Ever hear of LPG? By the way propane does make a fair refrigerant. When the liquid passes through an expansion valve it expands and returns to a gas. The only cooling event occurs at the expansion valve. The condenser does just that it returns the gas to a liquid state as it gives off the heat from inside the truck.

 

A real test would be to test the temperature before and after at one of the vents.

 

Something that can actually work, although for my v6, the fan pulls a ton of air through the front end. But if you are stuck at a red light in 100+ degree weather, an electric fan would be nice. Only down side is they do fail. Daughter's V6 mustang just lost the stupid "constant control relay module" which is another term for a box that has multiple relays sealed in side, fuel pump, A/C compressor, AND the cooling fan. An easy way for Fort to nick you for $150 or so for a friggin' relay. That engine-mounted fan will rarely fail, and when it does, it is usually a rattle rather than a catastrophic failure. If electric is all you have, any failure is catastrophic if you have to drive in any kind of traffic.

 

alls im going to say about the electric fan debate.

You dont see any production trucks that are worth anything using electric fans, there is a reason for that.

BUT an auxiliary one on the condenser could be beneficial to cycle on when the compressor kicks on.

 

As long as the system is not overcharged, and noting the Tampa FL location, you should be ok. The engine compartment is super hot and the colder the gas that returns to the compressor the better....overcharged systems may not evaporate all the liquid in the evaporator and return it to the compressor which is a bad thing... but you had the dealer check it out. In high humidity you need all the cold you can get.
Other things to check out;
At first turn on is that your fan clutch is locking up properly at hot. At idle and hot, and shutting off the engine, with hood up to view the fan, the fan should not free-wheel more than a couple turns. It needs to pull alot of air to condense the refrig. At first startup, the fan clutch will be released until it senses enough heat to lock the clutch. Thus cooling at first start/idle will be mediocre. This was mentioned in another post.
Another item is the a/c air door; if your recycle door is not closing properly/completely it's letting too much hot outside air in even if on recycle mode. That will increase the temp. Not sure how you'd test this.
The last item, and one i fought with my dealer on my 02 taco is a defective expansion valve which is not letting refrig thru fast enough. I was getting mediocre cooling a year after purchase and they replaced this/recharged and all was well.
Good luck with your fix and be sure the insulation doesnt degrade.

 

After the supercharger, my engine temps went up. Plus having the LTR for the SC intercooler in front of the condenser resulted in the AC not as cool as before. Insulated the return line and there is a noticeable difference in the temp as well as quicker temp drop when turning on the AC. Its been over 100 here for the last couple of weeks so call it BS, placebo effect, whatever. I agree with op, there is a difference. From Physics, theory is just a close estimate of actual real world results. And in this case theory dosent exactly match the real world. Nice job OP.

 

The best thing one can do is seal up the front radiator support and place wheather stripping between the radiator and condenser. Purpose being hot air will creep in from the engine compartment reducing efficiency of the condenser the second reason is to insure that air is pulled through the condenser and then the radiator by the thermostatic fan clutch that is regulated by a bimetallic thermostatic coil engaged by the air temperature going over it. Then one can add a condenser fan and use a pressure switch from a first gen Tacoma that is a trinity this will activate the condenser fan when head pressures rise in the high side thus assisting in lowering the head pressure when needed. One can also increase the viscosity of the thermostatic clutch fluid to cause the engine operated fan to engage more aggressively and pull more air via the moter but you must be careful to not go to thick as it will fail to dissengage at speeds above 15 miles per hour and kill power gas mileage etc.

 

There is a service bulletin on some Lexus GX470's that have you take pre-cut foam and seal all the holes in the radiator support. There some other stuff you do but it's been so long since I did one.