Air Conditioning? Yes Please!

[Chris28]

I'm switching to a new shell, this one has all the A/C components in it, so I'm actually going to have air conditioning! I've never had a 240 with it, and this 100 degree weather here makes for some pretty unbearable trips. Here are some pictures of my new oil return line and how I modified everything for the compressor.

Before:


The Goods:


After:


I had to cut off the bottom right compressor mounting point, hopefully with 3 other bolts it won't make a difference. I'm also going to have to shave the mounting point on the actual compressor down in order for it to clear the swivel fitting. Other than that I'm pretty happy with this setup, it should work just as well or even better than my previous setup.

I'll probably update this thread with more pictures once the engine goes back in, because the ka-t forum can get pretty slow and everyone loves pictures!

[biggie]

Crazy AC stuff. Wimp.



If I didn't have other cars with AC I'd die in the KA-T Coupe without AC.

[Chris28]

Haha I've had to daily my car all summer, I about died those last 2 weeks of June when it was near the 100's in Raleigh. Now that I'm home I have to deal with the heat and the humidity, I had to do something about it lol.

Not to mention it will help out a whole lot in the rain. I'm tired of my windshield fogging up and not being able to do anything about it except blast it with hot air haha.

[biggie]

Its the main reason I don't drive mine in the rain, without the windows down its really humid and fogs up inside. Really could use some rain visors, but I'm not rich.

[Chris28]

Exactly. I usually crack mine, but that barely helps. I'd go for some rain visors, but they are indeed expensive.

[biggie]

Exactly. I usually crack mine, but that barely helps. I'd go for some rain visors, but they are indeed expensive.

Yep, just easier to take the DD out when raining.

[motoman399]

good deal on the A/C. i am putting it back in my car when i get it on the road again. its all about luxury's..

i has rain visors too!! only paid 60 bux from europe!

[DevilMB3017]

Pfft, I have the A/C components in my car, just no refrigerant. :p

I really need to get the kit to change it to new stuff (R114a or something?) instead of the R12 that it is right now.

It's cool to see more people actually finishing their KA-Ts fully instead of how they used to have to be rigged back in the day.

[motoman399]

I really need to get the kit to change it to new stuff (R134a or something?) instead of the R12 that it is right now.

fixed

[Chris28]

Pfft, I have the A/C components in my car, just no refrigerant. :p

I really need to get the kit to change it to new stuff (R114a or something?) instead of the R12 that it is right now.

It's cool to see more people actually finishing their KA-Ts fully instead of how they used to have to be rigged back in the day.

Yeah, all of my a/c components say r134a on them and are oem so I'm guessing it was a dealer installed retrofit. Switching to this new shell is pretty rad, I feel like I'm going back and doing things right this time instead of having things rigged like you said haha.

[DevilMB3017]

I really need to get the kit to change it to new stuff (R134a or something?) instead of the R12 that it is right now.

fixed

That's why I put the 'or something?' part. I've never really worried about it. I was planning on trying to do some time this season, but I haven't yet. Who knows. I'll get around to it some day.

Yeah, all of my a/c components say r134a on them and are oem so I'm guessing it was a dealer installed retrofit. Switching to this new shell is pretty rad, I feel like I'm going back and doing things right this time instead of having things rigged like you said haha.

Yeah, I feel like a KA-T is becoming more and more daily-worthy then when I was looking into starting project years ago. With my coil-overs I don't know that I'd want to daily it, but I certainly could if I had to (well, with working A/C!). It's great to see you're still in the game man, hopefully it's treating you right.

[Chris28]

Yeah man, I'll be around for a while haha. I recently totaled my car, but it's sort of a blessing in disguise because now with this new shell I can go back and do everything correctly instead of driving around in a half-assed car.

[WDRacing]

Great outlook man. I'll never have a car without AC...ever. Maybe if I had a full time track car, but that's not likely anytime soon...lol. BTW, we moved Langley to our #1 choice of assignments. Chances are pretty good we'll be in VA by next Christmas

WD

[Chris28]

Hell yeah! You'll have to come out to Wacky Wednesday, it's a thing at Langley Speedway, all you have to do is have a valid inspection and it's like 20 bucks for time trials/drag races on the oval track. Here's a video of last year's highlights, Hopefully I'll be able to run it sometime soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0toZ4Li-mU

[motoman399]

that looks like so much fun. i wish we had something like that. how did you wreck your car? sorry to hear that..

EDIT: i didnt watch the whole video when i posted. holy crap that mustang got mangled. ouch...

[Chris28]

I was just being dumb, it was raining, and a pole got in my way.


Yeah that Mustang got messed up, the guy that owns/built/drives it lives right down the street from me. His son was driving when that happened, the throttle plate got stuck open, there was nothing he could do.

The blue s13 that was "drifting" is some kid with an sr that thinks he knows everything. I beat him by a few bus lengths on my old t25 setup, his reason for losing was because I was running a tuned ecu haha. He didn't understand the tune was only to compensate for the larger injectors, everything else was left basically stock. It was rather funny how mad he got when he lost to a KA though haha.

[coupe240sxguy]

going to stick with r-12... pros - colder... cons - expensive
i do deserve it i live in tx

[Chris28]

I didn't take any of the lines off for the purpose of saving the r12, but once the engine was out I looked at it closer and saw the r134a. A friend of mine has a bunch of r12 so if I needed it I could have gotten some, but r134a is easier to deal with. Besides, anything is better than no a/c at all haha.

[coupe240sxguy]

yes i do agree... i havent had ac in her since i bought her in 97. currently into a project with her... convert and fab a 370z front with fabbed fenders, doors, and rear quarters. the a/c will wait till finished the project

[WDRacing]

Hell yeah! You'll have to come out to Wacky Wednesday, it's a thing at Langley Speedway, all you have to do is have a valid inspection and it's like 20 bucks for time trials/drag races on the oval track. Here's a video of last year's highlights, Hopefully I'll be able to run it sometime soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0toZ4Li-mU

I plan on having the boys at that place once a week while it's open My boys are going to be involved with racing from an early age

[GTR PrYdE]

Not the prettest but it works. Grinded off the corner and everything fits nicely. The hose is a JGS blue line, doesn't rub or anything.

[Chris28]

Yeah that's what I did, I cut the corner off. Have you experienced any problems with only 3 bolts holding the compressor on?

Here's a progress picture. Engine is in, wired up, and just about finished. All that's left to do is mount the intercooler and hook up the lower ic piping, put the battery in, fill up the engine/radiator/transmission, driveshaft, and exhaust. All little things that just take time. Hopefully it will be done by Monday!



I was planning on not running e-fans anymore, but making everything fit with the aftermarket radiator was too much of a hassle. There isn't any place to bolt the fan shroud in, and since the radiator is thicker I wasn't sure if the clutch fan would fit behind the a/c condenser fan. I had 2 spare condenser fans so I just put them in the Altima fan housing. One is hooked up to the a/c circuit and will come on when the a/c is on, the other is wired to always be on. I ran a fan always on before and never had any problems, and with this only covering half of the radiator I think I'll be fine.

[WDRacing]

I'm running twin AC fans, been over 100 here for 2 weeks and I beat on her the other day for about 20 minutes just to see if the temps would stay down, they did.

[GTR PrYdE]

Yeah that's what I did, I cut the corner off. Have you experienced any problems with only 3 bolts holding the compressor on?

Not that i've noticed, still on there lol.

About the e-fans, I don't see how you can run them WD, I run the stock fan w/ shroud and my car still heats up to 185-190 cruising, and 200 sitting in traffic... time for a mishimoto..

[WDRacing]

I have a Koyo and a 160* stat...

[Chris28]

Well I started her up today and drove around my neighborhood. A/C blows ice cold...it's awesome.

I need to troubleshoot a hesitating issue I have, basically if I'm at partial throttle the engine stumbles all over the place and has almost died a few times. I'm betting it's a vacuum leak, I need to hook it up to an air compressor and see what's going on. I also need to replace the power steering pump, it's whining pretty badly, I should have just used the one from my old car but for some reason I thought the pump from the new car would be better. I have a small power steering leak from a line going into the pump, but I'm replacing the pump anyways so it shouldn't be an issue.

I also need to tighten up my oil drain plug or something, there were a few drops on my driveway that seem to be coming from the drain plug area. My oil pressure gauge doesn't work anymore, I overtightened a nut on one of the sender posts and managed to snap the post clean off, right at the base. I just ordered a replacement sending unit, hopefully that fixes my problems. Other than that everything seems to be working as it should. Pictures will probably come tomorrow!

[Chris28]

Alright ladies, lets talk boost leaks.

It's coming from my injectors. The isolator bushings are leaking air past them. I've never heard of this before, but I do think I know why it's happening. One of my isolator bushings was cracked, that was obvious, but i replaced it and it still didn't pass my boost leak test. My fuel rail is probably an SR fuel rail, the mounting tabs for the wiring harness aren't there and in fact interfere with it. I bent the tabs down so the harness could fit next to the valve cover, but in the process I may have bent the fuel rail as well, making the injectors not seat properly in the bushings.

Sound plausible? My symptoms are really bad hesitation whenever i push the pedal. Once I get "past" the bad area in the rev range it's fine, I was even able to build 5 psi of boost, it's just if I punch it or give it too much load lower in the rpm range it stumbles, hesitates, etc. It also seems really slow, but that's probably a combination of having a/c, a full interior, and stock suspension haha.

[Spring Break '92]

Don't worry pal, just swap your rail over like we talked about earlier and you'll be back in the game.

[WDRacing]

So, you're using the SR fuel? Why? Perhaps it's not seating the injectors enough.

[biggie]

I should be able to get you a KA rail out of the local junkyard (it was there last week), if you need it. Just let me know before the weekend and I'll get it.