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Better cooling through Air Conditioner surgery...? 200

posted by  someone claiming to be kevin-at-vmware-dot-com on  Fri Jun 4 06:27 CST 2004 [RELATED]


My 1983 244 was the peak of the line in its day... but its day was 21 years ago, and after 7 owners (I'm #8) my main concern is keeping it rolling under power.

SO, I was wondering about the advisability of the following hack. Opinions / suggestions please, on whether I should try this (tips?) or just "leave it the heck alone if it's running OK today".

The hack:
+ My air conditioning is long-dead. Just needs a freon (or other CPC-ok) recharge, but frankly the vehicle temp rises in hot weather anyway. I run all year round with the heat/cool lever set to HOT, and in summer sometimes even need to RUN that heater to keep the engine temp low.

(A) SO, I was thinking of pulling the air conditioner radiator (since it sits right in fron of the engine radiator... should increase engine radiator airflow by removing air conditioner radiator, right?)

(B) I was also thinking of removing the drive belt from the compressor -- just running a belt directly to power steering, vs current factory-issue drive -> compressor -> power steering. (Not so sure about this -- compressor isn't actually engaged unless air conditioner on, right? So not sure physically taking belt out of system really would reduce any engine load. If it would, any ideas on what size belt I'll need?)

Thoughts on advisability of doing hack (A) or (B)? Will they achieve the better engine cooling / less load that I desire? Tips?

Thanks!

- KE





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