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<x-charset iso-8859-1>Hello- > Has anyone else here been playing with the idea of a/c? I would love > to hear any feedback from the group! But of course! My '72 FASTback is a touring car, and IMHO no touring car is complete without A/C :-) I use an old VPC vent/evaporator unit under the dash. A bit of trivia: unlike most other VW A/C systems, these have the expansion valve inside the unit. This confused me for awhile... The condensor is an aftermarket "universal" one. It is 22.5"x12" and is parallel flow (i.e. better than tube-and-fin, kinda like a "Mesa" oil cooler). I have a 12" fan mounted to it, and the whole mess is crammed semi-vertically just ahead of the front beam. It *does* clear the spare tire well, but it blocks about half the airflow to the unit. Since I use the whole front of my car for spare parts and tools anyway, I just removed the spare tire piece and made a flat block-off plate, used the former spare tire well to fit tools, and put the spare tire in the main part of the front trunk. The dryer is mounted in the front of the right-front wheelwell, just kinda like the "original" systems. The compressor is a Sanden 507, and it is mounted to a 2615cc 220hp Type 4 engine in the car. It is on the left-hand side of the fan shroud. Boy, what a pain in the #$%$%&#%% it was to make this thing fit in there! Vintage people should be warned that my method did require some body "modification." I had a Sanden 508, but it was too big. Even the 507 required making an idler pulley on the _power_ side of the belt, grinding part of the cast fan shroud away, and a hammer to the body (just the part that forms the ducting for cooling air, so no aesthetic harm is done). Another part of the problem I had was my exhaust system - the compressor sits 1/2"-1" above my second muffler. Of course, I put heat shield on the compressor. But this is the reason why it had to me mounted high enough to warrant the odd idler pulley and the "body modification," so others may be able to circumvent that problem. I ran all of the lines and crimped all the fittings myself. I did NOT do what VPC originally did - they ran their lines to the evaporator though the trunk! So, you have to punch TWO holes for each line instead of just one! I thought this was stupid, and so I just punched the holes directly to the right-front wheelwell, making only half the holes of the original setup. Of course, grommets were used. And, those grommets have gray RTV on them, so there is no chance of the wheels tossing water in from a rainy day. > Many of you will probably jump > in and say that a/c is too hard on the cars and will kill the motor, > overheat it, etc. As you know, it is BS :-). > I think I've figured out a good way to seal > around the belt holes with a light flexible rubber that fits snug around the > belt coming through the engine tin. Good! Skipping this step can help kill the engine. A/C is a wonderful thing... although it may sound pretty evil, it's fun to cruise by another VW on a hot summer day with all your windows rolled up and all of theirs rolled down, and just wave :-). Take care, Shad Laws LN Engineering http://www.LNengineering.com ------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <type3-off@vwtype3.org> For more help, see http://vwtype3.org/list/ </x-charset>