turbo + A/C????

[Turbo96]

how many people are running A/C on their turbo cars? right now i have my a/c out because i figured the turbo makes enough heat as it is and i dont want overheating problems. i'm thinking about putting in back in though with the new motor. anyone having problems with their setups?

 

[04SilverSerpent]

how many people are running A/C on their turbo cars? right now i have my a/c out because i figured the turbo makes enough heat as it is and i dont want overheating problems. i'm thinking about putting in back in though with the new motor. anyone having problems with their setups?

As long as your cruising on the hwy you shouldn't have an issue. That being said, if your in stop n go traffic for an extended period of time, it might get really hot...last year we had a heat wave in Dallas with temps in the 105-110 range and I coudln't run the a/c in stop n go traffic during rush hour, but it was fine without the a/c on. I've been looking for methods myself to improve cooling in stop n go traffic. At the very mimimum, make sure you have a lower t-stat and adjust your fan settings. I always monitor my temp with the diagnostic tool on the dash.

 

[86merc]

Turbo cars are all about heat control. You want to keep the heat in the tubing and turbine. It help the system be efficient. It also helps keep the engine bay cooler. On my 86 Capri I have the a/c, 1.75" headers, 2.5" crossover, 5" down pipe, dual 2.5" aluminum exhaust and the a/c. The whole system is ceramic coated. Every thing besides the headers is wrapped with the DEI wrap and the turbine housing has a blanket on it. My engine bay temps are not high when driving or in traffic. Stock hood too.

I purposely did not put a air to air intercooler in front of the radiator and condenser. I did not want to restrict flow through them. I think that helped too.

Use shrouds and ducting to force as much air through the intercooler/condenser/radiator as possible. gaps and open areas leave a place for air to escape. Air getting around the system is not going to help.

Another thing you might want to think about is a quality engine oil cooler. To try and keep the engine temps down.

 

[IUP99snake]

Living in Florida, under no circumstances should one sacrifice the A/C on a street car.

Regardless, keeping the A/C is a way of Keeping the overall fit and finish of a street car. Removing the A/C is a shortcut in my opinion. Its easier to remove the A/C than it is to either make the parts fit (if its a clearance issue) or upgrade the cooling system (if its a cooling system issue). But if youre having cooling system issues, the A/C is just a small contributor to a much larger problem. Any vehicle that makes more power is going to make more heat, and as a result, the cooling system should be upgraded accordingly.

To others, perhaps in cooler climates, it might not matter much, but it's still just one step closer towards a less streetable vehicle.

But going back to my fit and finish argument, I've seen lots of people do motor swaps and just figure it's easier to delete the A/C than it is to figure out a way of getting it to work. If you can pull off an awesome motor swap, or other big modification, it's nice to be able to tell people that you've put as much work into maintaining all the creature comforts of a daily driver, and to enjoy them. It just makes the vehicle so much more of a pleasure to drive.

Once you delete the A/C, it's the first step in making your car less streetable. Can't get the rollbar to fit? Delete the interior panels instead of modifying them to help make the rollbar look like it was an option in the car. Need gauge space? Delete the radio instead of finding a nice gauge pod that makes the gauges look like they may have come from the factory... And so on and so forth until your car is so unpleasurable to drive on the street that it becomes a dedicated track car...

Put the A/C back in and upgrade the cooling system, plus wrap the exhaust leading to the turbo and the down pipe to reduce underwood heat. The turbo blanket is also a great way of keeping the heat in the turbo. At least with a turbo, you don't have any belt alignment issues or anything of that nature that people have with blowers. You could even put a set of under drive pulleys on. Actually, you might not want to do that considering that you'll need everything you can get out of the cooling system. You could get an electric water pump, and out under drives on the crank and alternator to free up a little bit of power. Another thing I recommend to help out the cooling system is to install a lower temp thermostat. That'll help your car run at a lower temperature during normal driving.

Good luck!

Homer

 

[Turbo96]

i only took off the compressor and the hot/cold lines. everything else is in the car still. the motor is out right now so i will easily be able to wrap all the hot pipes. already have a turbo blanket, mishimoto radiator, and high flow water pump. no underdrive pulleys. i think the coolant system should be sufficient. i will try it and if things dont work out i will just pull the whole system out. also my turbo is watercooled so will that raise the coolant temps alot? i have the factory cobra oil cooler as well, is that sufficient or should i figure out a way to run a bigger external cooler?

 

[IUP99snake]

i only took off the compressor and the hot/cold lines. everything else is in the car still. the motor is out right now so i will easily be able to wrap all the hot pipes. already have a turbo blanket, mishimoto radiator, and high flow water pump. no underdrive pulleys. i think the coolant system should be sufficient. i will try it and if things dont work out i will just pull the whole system out. also my turbo is watercooled so will that raise the coolant temps alot? i have the factory cobra oil cooler as well, is that sufficient or should i figure out a way to run a bigger external cooler?

Interesting, a water cooled turbo. You don't see those too often, especially in mustangs. I'm assuming it splices into the factory engine coolant lines somewhere? That'll definitely put a strain on the cooling system. Using a larger radiator is probably the best thing to use.

The factory cobra oil cooler is actually an oil/water heat exchanger in the engine. It doesn't have a separate radiator of its own. It transfers heat from the oil into the coolant which is then released with the regular radiator. It can also work in reverse, warming the oil during engine warm up before the thermostat opens. It's primary function isn't really to provide extra oil cooling, but to keep the oil and coolant temps consistent among each other.

But you can add an external oil cooler. Since you have a turbo, its especially easy for you to add one. All you have to do is plumb into the turbo's oil supply from the engine. I don't know if you'd get a greater benefit to put the cooler before the turbo or after it.

My guess is to put it after the turbo because the turbo relies on a certain oil temperature and viscosity so the bearings don't provide too much resistance on the shaft. If the oil is cooled before the turbo, it'll be constantly fed relatively cool oil which might put undue strain on the bearings and shaft, not to mention make the turbo less efficient because it takes more force to spin the turbine. So, it might be best to plumb the cooler after the turbo before the oil is returned into the engine. That way, the engine isn't being fed all that hot oil from the turbo. But, thats just my opinion based on what's theoretically taking place. It could be totally exaggerated.

Regardless, an oil cooler is a good idea for you. It's easy to install, and it will help take some of the burden off the coolant system. You could also delete the factory oil/water cooler by removing the cobra oil cooler adapter and installing the Mustang gt version off a 2 valve motor in its place. (I could be wrong, but from what I understand, the oil cooler sits between the block and the oil filter. Someone correct me if I'm wrong)

With the aftermarket radiator, an external oil cooler, wrapped exhaust and a turbo blanket, your cooling system should work just fine and be able to handle the AC.

I can't remember if I mentioned it before or not, but it would also be a good idea to install a lower temp thermostat. The factory one is like 190 degrees. Install a 160 or 170 in its place.

Good luck installing the motor and everything else!

 

[Turbo96]

Interesting, a water cooled turbo. You don't see those too often, especially in mustangs. I'm assuming it splices into the factory engine coolant lines somewhere? That'll definitely put a strain on the cooling system. Using a larger radiator is probably the best thing to use.

The factory cobra oil cooler is actually an oil/water heat exchanger in the engine. It doesn't have a separate radiator of its own. It transfers heat from the oil into the coolant which is then released with the regular radiator. It can also work in reverse, warming the oil during engine warm up before the thermostat opens. It's primary function isn't really to provide extra oil cooling, but to keep the oil and coolant temps consistent among each other.

But you can add an external oil cooler. Since you have a turbo, its especially easy for you to add one. All you have to do is plumb into the turbo's oil supply from the engine. I don't know if you'd get a greater benefit to put the cooler before the turbo or after it.

My guess is to put it after the turbo because the turbo relies on a certain oil temperature and viscosity so the bearings don't provide too much resistance on the shaft. If the oil is cooled before the turbo, it'll be constantly fed relatively cool oil which might put undue strain on the bearings and shaft, not to mention make the turbo less efficient because it takes more force to spin the turbine. So, it might be best to plumb the cooler after the turbo before the oil is returned into the engine. That way, the engine isn't being fed all that hot oil from the turbo. But, thats just my opinion based on what's theoretically taking place. It could be totally exaggerated.

Regardless, an oil cooler is a good idea for you. It's easy to install, and it will help take some of the burden off the coolant system. You could also delete the factory oil/water cooler by removing the cobra oil cooler adapter and installing the Mustang gt version off a 2 valve motor in its place. (I could be wrong, but from what I understand, the oil cooler sits between the block and the oil filter. Someone correct me if I'm wrong)

With the aftermarket radiator, an external oil cooler, wrapped exhaust and a turbo blanket, your cooling system should work just fine and be able to handle the AC.

I can't remember if I mentioned it before or not, but it would also be a good idea to install a lower temp thermostat. The factory one is like 190 degrees. Install a 160 or 170 in its place.

Good luck installing the motor and everything else!

yes, the turbo is watercooled because its a ball bearing which uses less oil lubrication. its spliced into my heater core hoses. the mishimoto radiator is bigger than stock and its coupled with a 180degree thermostat. the cobra oil cooler is between the block and filter like you said. im not sure if i should keep it or get rid of it while the motor is out. i will try out an aftermarket oil cooler to see if it helps. i should have my motor back the first week of aug.

 

[Fast?notyet]

i have factory coolant system in my Mach 1 i dont know for gospel if the mach1s had a oil cooler factory but mine doesnt. i have a turbo and a/c and havent ever even seen my gauge move or felt like it was hot at all but i do know that the factory gauge isn't a gauge it is a dummy light so take the temps thing with a grain of salt but i dont have any mods on coolant system and i run a turbo and a/c and never had any trouble here in the mountains i dont know about places that see 105 and 110 temps regularly with near 100% humidity i would say something needs to be done i have wire the fan to a switch that i can turn the fan on high whenever i want to and when it is hot out sometimes i turn it on but most times i forget because it doesnt seem to have any issues with heat at all

 

[Turbo96]

i have factory coolant system in my Mach 1 i dont know for gospel if the mach1s had a oil cooler factory but mine doesnt. i have a turbo and a/c and havent ever even seen my gauge move or felt like it was hot at all but i do know that the factory gauge isn't a gauge it is a dummy light so take the temps thing with a grain of salt but i dont have any mods on coolant system and i run a turbo and a/c and never had any trouble here in the mountains i dont know about places that see 105 and 110 temps regularly with near 100% humidity i would say something needs to be done i have wire the fan to a switch that i can turn the fan on high whenever i want to and when it is hot out sometimes i turn it on but most times i forget because it doesnt seem to have any issues with heat at all

i've noticed the mod motors seem to do alittle better with coolant temps than the old pushrod 5.0s. i guess i will see what happens. can anyone recommend a better replacement electric fan? preferably an adjustable one?

 

[03screamingSVT]

I run my a/c nonstop in both 2v and 4v cars I have. I don't have anything upgraded in either car as far as the cooling system with 3" core air to air intercoolers mounted in the grill. I'll run the a/c during city driving, windows up and 100+ degree days without the car missing a beat. Never have had any sort of heat issues and my gt has been daily driven this way since 08. There really should be no issues with heat unless there is some other underlying issue