Air-con in a 240

[richard1]

I cannot be of any help to these questions but let me share my experience from the desert heat of Nevada.

My 72 240z has the original A/C from new and perform as it is supposed to be until now. Maintenance is performed every spring but I started to hear some noise coming from the fan clutch when the car is not even on the driveway.

Could it be more the belt than the clutch. The system is very thight,doesn't leak and perform pretty well for being 32 YO.

[drunkenmaster]

Reviving an old topic, but does anyone have any photos of their aftermarket air conditioning? (vintageair.com etc)

I see now hotrodair.com have fresh air option on their similar looking units.

On the other hand, can the dealer option systems ever really be made to perform well?

[sblake01]

I have the dealer option system in my 78. It does perform well IMO. The 74-78 dealer option system is different from the 70-73 system. The 74-78 system uses a Sankyo SD 508 compressor which is basically the same as the Sanden SD 508 that the Vintage Air system uses. Sanden bought out Sankyo sometime back. The early system (70-73) does have it's drawbacks as Carl points out earlier in this thread. It's more of a 'hack job' appearance wise than the later dealer installed system. I'm a MVAC tech and have been able to make that old York system work fairly well so I'm not quite as down on it as most people. In a 70-73 I'd say that Vintage Air or sometning along those lines would be the way to go. I have no experience with it in a Z but my nephews 66 Chevelle has Vintage air and it will freeze you out. As far as non-factory systems in the 74-78 cars, which I notice you have in your signature, like I said, I have the 'dealer installed' system in my 78 and it gets down to 35 degrees at the center vent. It didn't work well when I got the car, cool but not cold, but all I did was replace the hoses, the receiver/drier, flush and vaccum the system and charge it with R414B, a direct reaplacement for R12 which requires no changes it the system. It's been working fine ever since. Due the politics in the refrigerant industry, R414B, sometimes known as Hotshot, is recognized as a direct replacement for R12 for everthing except mobile air conditioning. It's tough to find a shop that will charge your system with it but since I'm a tech I have access to it.

[drunkenmaster]

Thanks for the info, yes I had the A/C system that had the large evaporator hanging down in the passenger footwell, the plastic housing is a little cracked from years of use, so since I will be hunting and paying for parts anyway, I wonder whether it is worthwhile to pursue and old style system, try and adapt and evaporator from another car or use a full HVAC replacement like vintageair or hotrodair.

Since you are knowledgeable in the field and its been a while since I removed mine, is the way the evaporator plumbs into the vents in regard to the blower typical of most cars or is there anything unique or critical that would decide which alternate evaporator to use? Any photos would be great.

Thanks

[sblake01]

That sounds like the factory system. If so, they can work well as does the system in my 810. If it has a blower to the right of the evaporator which blows through the evap housing and into the center vent which has two hoses that branch out to the side vents. that that's the factory system. It would have a blower motor designed for a heating/ac system. The dealer installed system uses the standard heater motor and the evap sits above the heater core in a housing designed for that application (74-78). Both systems will cool the car more than adequately. I have the dealer system in my Z and the factory system in my 810. They both cool very well. The Vintage Air system, IIRC, has it's own blower motor. I don't have any experience with a V A system in a Z. But the Vintage Air system in my nephew's Chevelle works very well also.