New AC Ideas
 

So . . . what's the rest of the car look like. Saying it has 330K miles on it doesn't necessarily put it in the dying beater category. And 200K more miles, at least, is a long way to drive without a real AC. Would love to see pics of the car.

Torie

Keep it simple.
Place dry ice blocks in a cooler on the floor or seat beside you. Cover the dry ice with aluminum foil to slow the rate of evaporation

Mount a small 12 volt truck window fan on the far edge of the cooler
blowing at the dry ice.

Plug the fan into the cigar lighter.

If you want cool air why mess with water.

Enjoy the cool air.

I have a messed with dry ice in a night club environment and it melts quicker that Shiite. I bought like 250 lbs for a Halloween night in a club and it didn't last 2 hours.... it was a dollar a pound. The effect was cool but it cost more than me... and i was the DJ!! I lasted like 6 hours.... those were the days

I think frozen 2 liter bottles would last longer. About 6 or so for a commute to work. You could keep backup bottles in a spare 5 day cooler stowed in the trunk for the commute home.

Homemade frozen bottles would cost pennies.

Also, the blue frozen ice blocks may last longer. I'm sure it's possible to make your own. They are simply one part alcohol to three parts of water.

I think it would not be good run anything thru the car's A/C system. A cooler with ice blocks and fan would work just as well and would have zero mess. The frozen 2 liters could be use over and over. Boating suppliers sell fan blowers cheaply. The Blowers could be used to draw air into the cooler. You could have one or two cold air exits ports from your cooler.

i haven't read the whole thread here but there is a company in NC, i think, who makes a cooler with a fan in it. you put ice in and it cools for a few hours. it's made for small planes without AC. they only need cooling for a little while until they get high enough where the air is cooler. anyway, this company sells them ready to go. you just put ice in and plug it in. the company name escapes me now but a search should find it.
roberto

so... cold co2 gas in the car not a big concern for asphyxiation? surely while driving down the road it's not a worry, but I'd think it could be dangerous at stoplights and parked...

The ICE A/C blew cold for about 2 hours of a 4 hour trip. Real cold. It was great until my BTUs ran out. But, being BRITISH THERMAL UNITS, I expected them to leak out.

I left in the evening so the sun went down about the time I lost cooling. Best trip I've had in that car in awhile. Eng temp never got above 90c with the condenser removed.

Joules are the SI equivalent, but only available where metric HVAC is sold. Tons (heat equivalent to melt a ton of ice) are a common HVAC consideration in the US and available everywhere.

while the btu figure should be the same, a ton of refrigeration/air conditioning, is the amount of heat removal needed to make a ton of ice... in one hour. the figure should be the same because all the heat needed for the phase change should be taken in by the phase change back to water.
it's the way I was taught refrigeration theory, so it may not be correct, I'll research it a tad...
actually, it's in a 24 hour period...
and it's the amount of cooling or HEAT absorbed by melting a ton of ice in a day... from the definition I've read so far. but like I said, the inverse is true, so it's the same amount of heat removal needed to turn a ton of water already at 32°F into a ton of ice...

Real cold . . . meaning . . .

Just curious, what would happen if you were to pump liquid nitrogen through the system?

Of course it would need to be sealed some how.

I was getting 70 degrees at the vent with ice.

A closed loop cooling system would probably last longer than the ice.

The only other system that I would consider is installing an old recip. air compressor to run a venturi gun (that painters use to attach to their painter suits) that drop the air temp to about 50 degree and run the cold air thru the evaporator.

May not produce the volume of cold air it would take to cool the cabin.

you could runn a small ac window unit off a nice inverter packed away in the trunk. then run high pressure ac lines to the evaporator in the cars dash and refil the unit with 134a. I want to install a more modern scroll compressor or something in place of my r4

Where is this "rear vent" that you speak of?

reach down behind the center armrest. It is the vent that provides cold or ambient air. It has a slide control just below the vent. Manual says close this in the winter b/c it would let in outside air. while running AC it blows cold air.

I just keep mine closed all the time as I get better air pressure from the front and there is rarely anyone in the backseat.

the coil would rather rapidly get covered in a thick layer of condensation ice, blocking all airflow through the coil.
of course, if you SEALED the liquid nitrogen it would assume vapor pressure, and no cooling would take place, it would then rupture the thin aluminum piping, and vent the nitrogen. only steel has the structural integrity to handle the 2000+psi vapor pressure of nitrogen...
and it would take THICK steel to handle it...

Sooooo, what you're saying is, thats a bad idea..................

that depends on your definition of what "is" is

Oh know, you're not one of those guys are you..

AND HE LOOKS LIKE SUCH A NICE BOY, TOO.

you who? and "those" guys? whatchutalkingaboutwillis?
:D

Just saw this on thereifixedit.com and reminded me of this thread.

http://thereifixedit.files.wordpress...ee69e17545.jpg

The 1995 V6 Mustang look-alike wheels make it even sexier...meow!

Saw a guy w/a BMW that (you won't believe this one) used an aircraft electric a/c system. They are sort of self-contained, and some models fit in the rear cargo area of small planes.

Anyway, he got out of a wrecked C182 for like $100, and did something to the motor for 12V. He mounted it in the trunk, and had rigged the fan/evap to blow through the hole between the rear seats armrest. Don't remember how he vented the water.

Sorry, never heard the outcome as I never saw him again but always wondered how he vented the heat etc from the condenser

My Father (rest his soul) was the ultimate jerry rigger . . . old school farmer who never sent anything for repair.

We had an old County Dump Truck . . . No factory AC, but he rigged a 12V freezer coil (I was 6 so I have no real recollection of how this worked) into an insulated cooler. He added water/Antifreeze to this and a small pump (I don't recall the type of pump).

I do remember that in summer there were four ball valves we had to switch to move from "Heat" mode to "A/C" mode. (leads me to believe this was just plumbed into the heater core hoses)

The AC did not cool quickly (took 5-15 minutes depending on ambient temps) but we used to haul materials for hours at a time . . . that sucker got so cold it would freeze me out in the passenger seat .

I'm thinking, there's a way to start with the ice, then embed one of these 12v. Freezer coils then you have the best of both worlds!

Just bought a rebuilt compressor online for about $145, had lines flushed and installed comp. for $180 and with gas/oil it was about $360 total. Works pretty good but need to fix condensor fan motor.

The problem with running water through the A/C coil on your Benz is that the coil is aluminum and it will oxidize and will decompose rapidly.

all that and still don't get the answer you are after, tisk, tisk.
More power to you and you ice bucket a/c.......