86 12 Brutus Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 We just bought everything new to replace the factory AC. We need an electric condenser fan that wont break the bank. There's not much room. What is everybody using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old55pete Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 I am still using the stock clutch fan. If it is not coming on when the pressure on the high side this between 250 and 300 lbs, it needs to be replaced any ways. What alternator do you have? If it still has the stock 40 amp alt, you might want to swap it out for a bigger one first. The reason I am saying that is that the smaller alternators dont put out much if any at an idle, say sitting at a traffic light in the heat of the day. When you add the load of the AC blower motor, an aux fan for the AC system, and what ever else you have on, you can kill a battery quick. Is the AC factory or add on. The reason I am asking is there is a different fan shroud for the trucks with factory air and without air. The fan shroud makes a big difference with the amount of air pulled through radiator and AC condenser which is in front of the radiator. Just some thoughts. Dont take what I say as gospel. Just some thoughts to help out if I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86 12 Brutus Posted July 19, 2020 Author Share Posted July 19, 2020 The truck came equipped with Factory AC. I believe the alternator is somewhere around 110 amp or somewhere around there. The truck came with 2 batteries and a heavy duty charging system. I want to keep the regular fan but i also want to put an electric fan in front of the condenser and am trying to figure out what will fit, there's not much room between the condenser and the grill. I want as much ram air on the condenser as i can get. Using 134a you need alot of ram air and the truck will mainly tool around town Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old55pete Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 The truck came equipped with Factory AC. I believe the alternator is somewhere around 110 amp or somewhere around there. The truck came with 2 batteries and a heavy duty charging system. I want to keep the regular fan but i also want to put an electric fan in front of the condenser and am trying to figure out what will fit, there's not much room between the condenser and the grill. I want as much ram air on the condenser as i can get. Using 134a you need alot of ram air and the truck will mainly tool around town You are correct about there not being a lot of room between the grill and the condenser, a few inches at best( I was just out working on my AC ). I guess my question would have to be, why do you think you need an aux fan in front of your condenser? The stock fan pulls plenty of air at an idle to keep the system pressures correct and the AC ice cold sitting at a traffic light with the out side temp at 119 deg in down town Phoenix AZ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86 12 Brutus Posted July 19, 2020 Author Share Posted July 19, 2020 The truck came equipped with Factory AC. I believe the alternator is somewhere around 110 amp or somewhere around there. The truck came with 2 batteries and a heavy duty charging system. I want to keep the regular fan but i also want to put an electric fan in front of the condenser and am trying to figure out what will fit, there's not much room between the condenser and the grill. I want as much ram air on the condenser as i can get. Using 134a you need alot of ram air and the truck will mainly tool around town R134a does not work very well at slow speeds and stop n go traffic which is why vehicles equipped with it used electric fans in addition to the clutch fan. My 95 crown vic is a good example. When you start the car the electric fan does not come on until the car heats up or you turn the AC on. That was the one big thing about going from r12 to 134a. R12 works fine at low speeds and at idle. Unfortunately 134a does not. If the truck did mostly highway travel i wouldn't worry about it. But we mostly drive around town, and here in southeast Louisiana. I need that AC cold cold cold. I miss R12 when the truck was new you could hang meat in there it was so cold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old55pete Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 R134a does not work very well at slow speeds and stop n go traffic which is why vehicles equipped with it used electric fans in addition to the clutch fan. My 95 crown vic is a good example. When you start the car the electric fan does not come on until the car heats up or you turn the AC on. That was the one big thing about going from r12 to 134a. R12 works fine at low speeds and at idle. Unfortunately 134a does not. If the truck did mostly highway travel i wouldn't worry about it. But we mostly drive around town, and here in southeast Louisiana. I need that AC cold cold cold. I miss R12 when the truck was new you could hang meat in there it was so cold Here is the temp of my AC that I just finished about an hour ago. This is a R12 system converted to R134 in 2002. I had to make some repairs to the system then recharge it. I have a blue orface tube in it, 1 1/2 oz of pag 150 oil in it. I took that picture while it was 101 outside and 50% humidity because it had just rained. My Bronco sat there idling for 30 minutes before I took that picture. After only a few minutes of recharging the system it was at 36 deg. I am pretty sure you would have your meat locker with temps like this in a single cab F150 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85lebaront2 Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 The truck came equipped with Factory AC. I believe the alternator is somewhere around 110 amp or somewhere around there. The truck came with 2 batteries and a heavy duty charging system. I want to keep the regular fan but i also want to put an electric fan in front of the condenser and am trying to figure out what will fit, there's not much room between the condenser and the grill. I want as much ram air on the condenser as i can get. Using 134a you need alot of ram air and the truck will mainly tool around town I converted Darth to R134 years ago and even then had no problem keeping things cold until I stopped. If the truck sat and "hot soaked" it would take a long time to get cold again. Combination of no insulation on the underhood casing, the crummy 1986 blend door and being a crew cab. When a friend bought a flipped 1996 F150 4WD 5.0L truck to get the engine for his V8 Ranger project, I snagged the cab portion of the AC, the condenser was toast. Found a set of 1995 lines at Pick-n-Pull and with the compressor from the 1996 5.0L (460s had two different size clutch pulleys) and got a new 1994-96/7 Spectra Premium condenser from LKQ and adapted it to my 1990 radiator support. You can hang meat in there in summer here on the East coast of Virginia in traffic without an auxiliary fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old55pete Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 R134a does not work very well at slow speeds and stop n go traffic which is why vehicles equipped with it used electric fans in addition to the clutch fan. My 95 crown vic is a good example. When you start the car the electric fan does not come on until the car heats up or you turn the AC on. That was the one big thing about going from r12 to 134a. R12 works fine at low speeds and at idle. Unfortunately 134a does not. If the truck did mostly highway travel i wouldn't worry about it. But we mostly drive around town, and here in southeast Louisiana. I need that AC cold cold cold. I miss R12 when the truck was new you could hang meat in there it was so cold The other thing I forgot to mention is that you have to change the clutch pressure switch on the receiver/ dryer to one that is for R134 as the pressures run different then they do for R12. That makes a big difference in the way the AC performs. Not meaning to sound mean or anything, but it sounds like someone did dident do a complete job when your system was converted to R134. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty_S85 Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 Here is the temp of my AC that I just finished about an hour ago. This is a R12 system converted to R134 in 2002. I had to make some repairs to the system then recharge it. I have a blue orface tube in it, 1 1/2 oz of pag 150 oil in it. I took that picture while it was 101 outside and 50% humidity because it had just rained. My Bronco sat there idling for 30 minutes before I took that picture. After only a few minutes of recharging the system it was at 36 deg. I am pretty sure you would have your meat locker with temps like this in a single cab F150 My converted truck doesnt blow that cold. I hope to get it to there by making corrections. First off my '82 is dealer AC, it has the non AC 5 bladed flex fan which I have a 7 bladed flex fan which was a option for AC equipped trucks aside from a 6 bladed clutch fan. I also think I might have a problem with the old thermostatic switch for the cycling of my AC system, it cycles off at around 45* but will blow 58* out the vent all day long at 100* ambient air temp. I am going to swap my thermostatic switch out for one I found on ebay that has an identical plug to mine but is for a 65 mustang that has a AC cutout of 25* and a cut in of 32*. I hope this coupled with the correct bladed and sized fan should help my AC out. if not the next step for me is to junk the tiny dealer condenser and install a full width condenser that is made for 134A. I have to double check but I believe mine is also an expansion valve system since there is no accumulator and just a receiver drier. The thermostatic switch is to allow you to control the temp out of the dash as there is no blend door for the AC. I am not sure there is a upgrade for the expansion valve, the one on my '78 Mercury I converted to 134a would get the inside of the car down into the 30`s and would actually ice up the top of the cast iron compressor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86 12 Brutus Posted July 19, 2020 Author Share Posted July 19, 2020 Here is the temp of my AC that I just finished about an hour ago. This is a R12 system converted to R134 in 2002. I had to make some repairs to the system then recharge it. I have a blue orface tube in it, 1 1/2 oz of pag 150 oil in it. I took that picture while it was 101 outside and 50% humidity because it had just rained. My Bronco sat there idling for 30 minutes before I took that picture. After only a few minutes of recharging the system it was at 36 deg. I am pretty sure you would have your meat locker with temps like this in a single cab F150 Steve. Wow, you getting temp's that low at idle? or do you have a shop fan blowing on the condenser for charging like we used to have to with R12? You are using PAG 50 oil. is this a FS6 compressor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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