My '68 has stock A/C and the compressor took a dump. I also found out that it had already been converted to R134a. It seems prudent to replace rather than repair the compressor so I’m looking at the Old Air Products 50-0018 Air Conditioning Underhood Performance Kit with the new compressor, condenser, drier, hoses, etc.
Has anyone tried one of these? Is this a direct bolt in replacement?
It also says, “Sanden style A/C compressor”, not “Sanden compressor” which could be a concern.
Thoughts?
The Old Air kit will work for your car. However it has drawbacks. #1 is the heater does not work as well. The Old Air kit is made for a no - console situation. If you have a console there is only one lower heat outlet - so it gets directed towards the driver’s feet. There is no outlet directed towards the passenger. So the passenger gets cold.
Also the Old Air kit deletes the heater / AC / ventilation system’s ability to use outside air. If you are OK with these conditions then the kit will work for you.
Wow, there under hood kit does all that to the inside the car section?
Sorry I thought he was getting the whole kit! R134 is not as efficient as R12 so the main drawback of changing the compressor is that if everything is working 100% it will be about 8 degrees warmer. The advantage of getting the entire kit from Old Air is the car will be cooler in the summer time because the system was designed for R134.
I have the Old air underhood kit in my son’s ;68 and it works great in Arizona. However I have found that you MUST rebuild the air box inside the car. They are all full of leaves and God knows what. Also all of the foam seals are beyond wasted, most have turned to dust. I also flush the evaporator core. The condensor in the kit is more efficient than the original and that helps.
The only real problem with the kit is that it also fits Mustang. That means you have to bend the tubes going to the condensor and dryer. I was talking to them last week about doing another kit and they are developing the correctly bent Cougar only tubes if you can wait just a little longer. I will do a write up on it for the site when I get mine.