Does anyone have hooked up and working A/C in their FC LT1?

If so could you take a few pics of where the A/C hoses are supposed to go under the hood?

I have all the hoses and fittings etc...I just need to know where to run them to and from.

After this I am going to take it to an A/C shop and have them suck the system down and fill it up, and check for leaks (hope there aren't any !

It just too damn hot to drive down here in South Florida with no A/C.

Thanks in advance.

 

The only advice I can give you is to replace the seals before you assemble all the hoses. NAPA carries the seals in stock,I just worked on mine today. On the compressor most GM units use a sealing washer...its a steel washer with a rubber center. From a glance it just looks like a washer. Look closer and it has a rubber center. Forget one of those or accidently put both washers on one side and youll loose all your freon in 1 day. A few units used O rings and thier green neoprene..NAPA also carries those. Most of your hoses will only go on one way. The compressor will have 2 hoses and thier usually on a sort of manifold that only installs the correct way. Same goes for the accumilator. You can install 90% of it and only have to figure out the last couple of hose connections if you just carefully look at how things fit together. The other helpful thing to do is find another car with the same engine and take pictures or make a simple drawing. Any junk yard usually has a caprice,buick roadmaster with a LT-1. Next option is to buy a factory manual,ebay has them available on disk for around 10.00. You should have a factory manual anyways. Good luck.

 

Thanks for all the info!

Anyone have any pics of what it is supposed to look like? That will help A LOT

 

Best bet is to visit a junk yard and see for yourself. A picture isnt 3D....know what I mean? Make some phone calls to yards asking if they have any LT-1 cars you know the common ones caprice,roadmaster even caddys. Good luck.

 

Yea......guess I am off to the Junk Yard this weekend

 

10th AE LT1 has AC and PS. Its been done.

IIRC all that the logicon controls is the AC clutch... and the AC itself has a switch for low and high pressure safety sensors so it wont stay engaged w/o having a minimum amount of pressure, but not too much.

Not sure how idle is effected, but ID bet you that it would idle fine... if it doesnt theres plenty of ways to fix that of course

 

Nihilanthic,

Thanks for the info. Yes I am aware it has been done, but I am just not sure how to do it....

 

How about the PS? What's required for that?

 

Im not too sure about PS, as I dont have that in mine.

 

Ive been through every wire in a LT-1 harness. I dont think the idle speed changes with the A/C on. There is no wire designated for that or that could sense RPM. Hard to explain but the only wires in the harness for the A/C go to low pressure switch,high pressure sw., the A/C clutch on the compressor and the A/C demand turn on wire. Besides all that the PCM automatically adjusts idle speed constantly via the IAC. If it did idle down it would raise itself back up by itself. I seriously doubt a A/C compressor could affect idle....remember you have a crank and 8 pistons your trying to slow down. I just dont see it being a issue..but I could be wrong.

 

Here are the only photos I have of the A/C install. I would have taken more pictures, but with the Florida heat kicking my butt, I was interested more in getting it cooling!

http://www.team140.com/gallery/main....&g2_itemId=166

In a nutshell:
High pressure line (smaller diameter) from compressor to condensor
--- I used an F-Body manifold, two spare FC A/C lines and some brass compression fittings to go from the compressor - beside the radiator on the pass side - in front of condensor to the fitting on the driver's side.

High pressure from condenser to dryer to firewall
-- I used all the original lines for this run (including the dryer)

Low pressure from firewall to compressor
-- I used a Mazda low pressure line and the F-Body line on the manifold with a hose clamp. I cut the Mazda line where it's rubber and the F-body line where it's tubing and slipped (ie: forced!) the tubing into the rubber line.

From there on out, it's pretty easy. There are two wires in the Mazda ECU plugs that need to be tied together (definitely in 86-88 cars, 89+ supposedly have three.) Take a look at the ECU pinout to find two wires relating to A/C. Those are the ones to tie together.

Extend the original Mazda A/C wire to reach the GM compressor and tie into that wire.

IIRC, that's all I had to do on mine to get the A/C going.

BTW: the idle drops a hundred RPM for a split second when the A/C is engaged, but comes right back to where it should - just like a new car would.

 

Hey Brian, what did you do with your PS system?

 

I had a custom hi pressure line made to go from the pump to the lower inlet on the rack. The middle port on the rack was welded shut and smoothed over. The return line is just a piece of trans cooler rubber line run from the pump to the rack.

The power steering was the easy part

 

Thanks All !