G'day Fellas,

Just completed and tested the AC Efficiency Mod .

Well worth doing. It's not a difficult mod, just a little awkward to get the hose clamps on the back two hoses. At least that was my experience with the RHD Aussie truck.
But all in all a simple job.

I fitted this vacuum operated directional flow valve as recommended on this forum:

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This is it installed in my truck:

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I teed off the Red vacuum line coming off the AC switch in the back of the dash. Ran the vacuum hose line out through the fire wall to the valve install location.
There are some fellas who take off the RED vacuum line and others off the WHITE vacuum line. After reading both sides of the argument I decided to go with the RED vacuum line as the WHITE line will only operate with the MAX AC position with no heater (as pointed out by Bonanza35 below).
My apologies for mistakenly saying I spliced into the WHITE vacuum line.

After install, I ran truck up to full operating temp to test for leaks at full system pressure. All good there .

Cycled to valve through all positions and it operats as expected.
It does improve the efficiency by isolating the the heater box completely out of the system when switch is in any of the AC positions and the one fresh air position.

[/IMG]


Anyway that's my take in this Mod.

Cheers,
Reg

 

I did that last year also..

 

I thought the white line only gave you max ac with know heater and red did as above?

 

G'day M8,

You are correct. I don't know why I said the WHITE vacuum line when I most certainly did splice into the RED vacuum line .

I must have been soooo excited by the success of this mod I confused my own set up .
Or it might have been the 6 Beer time frame at the end warming her up and testing .


I have edited my original post on this to reflect what I actually did.

Thanks for picking me up on that .

Cheers,
Reg

 

Nice write-up Reg!

I'll have to check what I did last year when I did my max-a/c mod as I think I went into the white line. The red seems a better choice for the temperate climate my truck lives in!

 

My wife and I differ on this one. I like the heat on my feet, but she's looking for heat out the upper vents. I might get more tees and tubes to re-plumb eveything to get heat on the right and no heat on the left. I'd also like to wire that A/C compressor to stop running when it's just heat with no defrost... it's hitting my economy.

 

Reg, I did this mod a number of years ago, and I have found it to be quite worth-while here in our 100*+ SoCal summers. I suspect you will too!

Nice write-up.

Pop

 

Thanks fellas,

It is worth doing Pop and where I live in the state of South Australia, reputed to be the 'Driest State in the Driest Continent on Earth' with regular long periods of 38*C (100*F) and several streaches of 40 to 45*C (104 to 113*F) it is much warranted.
Simon it would worth changing to the RED vacuum line as it gets and stays pretty hot up there in Queensland mate.

Cheers,
Reg


“The Budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance”.

Cicero 55BC;

So evidently Socialist(read Labour, Democrat, Green) governments have learnt nothing in the past2,000+ years.

 

Sure looks like this is the way to go (red line). I'm trying to decide between doing it this way, or using an electrically actuated valve tied to an upfitter switch (thinking 650 dash), so I still have the option to mix heat and AC for warm feet, cool vent.

 

I can't help but chuckle at the irony of me reading this thread when I have this coming at me...



Anyway sorry the OT. That looks great!

 

Sorry to see that rufushusky! It's 80F here today, I'm excited to try switching my line from white to red to see what happens.

 

Reg,
where did you get the valve from?
Cheers Colin.

 

These valves were used in explorers and were a known failure point. I'm not saying don't use them, all I am saying is if you run into a coolant leak look there first...

 

G'day Colin,

I got mine through RockAuto. Their Part# is YG350 if you search their site by Part#. It's called a Heater Control Valve.
You can also do a Google search by punching in [Ford Part # F87Z-18495-AA].
This brings up several other mobs to get it from.

Cheers,
Reg

 

After having mine on a switch the last few years, I wouldn't install one any other way.
Vacuum Actuator Solenoid - Vacuum Accessories