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AC upgrades for a '79 240

Ju1cE

Ju1cE

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Location
Middle of a field in Southern Ohio
Hey Tb land!

I have been blessed with another project, make my Sister's beautiful '79 a pleasure to drive...wants are: cold A/C (lives in Florida, has toddler), reliable drive-ability (fuel tank rusted), better stereo system (not sure why maybe to drown out toddler), possible +t, and anything and everything else I can fix in the process.

So to get started I am curious where TB land is on recommendations for AC upgrades for South Florida climates.

I read this thread (http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=222757) and seems like the late model firewall panel and entire HVAC system was the bee's knees in 2010 and this thread (http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=235938) talked a little about evap upgrades using an Explorer unit (although since no one confirmed it would work I am guessing the answer is a "no").

Wanted to see if I missed some more current advice, if it is still "full late model swap" and any one on the west coast want to price out complete kits for me feel free to shoot me a PM. I would consider a pair of kits, my 82 needs some love this year too (B230FT swap and then some)
 
Find a 93 donor.... the only true 134a 240 produced. Move the whole thing; search some threads in Maint. section, as many pics have already been taken and folks have converted/now enjoy the improved condenser/fan setup the 93 used.

I believe the evaporator is same from 91-93, so any of those years will serve you. The prior discovery has shown the 93 compressor & condenser are that ONE year only. Don't forget the steel pass. side firewall insert plate that is unique for those last years.

My 93 AC conversion kit is slumbering.... like my 242 Whiteblock project. Hopefully we begin to move that glacier in 2018.....

Good luck!
 
The AC from a 91+ car will suffice for what you're looking to do. If you can find the elusive 93 with it's R134a system, yank every component from it. If not, the 91-92 cars AC system works fine with Duracool/R12 alternative. Even the 86-90 model years work fine, just not as well in traffic. My Wife's 90 blows ice cold. Not sure about the fuel tank, I know there are TBer's on here that can chime in on that part. The stereo can be done, just need to find a later model car with a stereo and yank the door cards to fit speakers. From there, get a decent deck, wire up speakers and hook up the deck. If you're confident in wiring and stereo, go for it. If anything for making it more fun to drive, give it a solid tune up and maybe a cam swap.
 
An alternative I found out about here is R152a. It works better than R134a and can be used in either R12 or R134 system. I haven't tried it but plan to when I put a/c back in my turbo.

A good help with the 240 cars that didn't have it is to add the front pusher fan. improves the low speed a/c. I added one to my 82 turbo when it did have a/c and it helped.
 
Waiting on a shipping quote for a 91-92 system that I've been PM'd about, 9/10 that's what it's getting with a 2 speed e-fan...maybe still a pusher for good measure.

I'm not really interested in the great elusive search for 93 equip, thankfully the car is a bright color (think safety yellow) and windows that are darker than legal.
 
IMO a pusher fan is useless if you’re installing the 2 speed 940 fan. My pusher fan would never come on no matter how hot it was when i had an e fan on my car. Make sure you seal any gaps between rad and condenser, this will allow the electric fan to pull more air through both cores.

AFAIK, once they started using primary electric fans, they did away with the pusher fan.
 
If i remember correctly i had to replace the firewall insert panel to be able to use late 240 evaporator when i converted my '76 to R134 setup.
 
Don't forget when Volvo started using all electric fan cooling. They also increased the radiator size to help with the reactive type of cooling system that is.

When I added the pusher fan to the turbo. I wired it so the fan would run when the compressor ran. I also added a bypass switch so I could run the fan all the time.

In the 93 wagon i left the pusher fan setup as stock because they changed to a pressure switch to activate the fan which is better than using the older coolant sensing version. That way the system would trigger the fan when a/c demand needed it not based on coolant temp. It works well.
 
dl242gt said:
When I added the pusher fan to the turbo. I wired it so the fan would run when the compressor ran. I also added a bypass switch so I could run the fan all the time.
Click to expand...

I thought about that, wiring would be silly simple to have pusher come on with compressor and a rad mounted temp switch for low speed and dash toggle for high speed.
 
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