After adding an aluminum intercooler from a super duty with a 7.3 my a/c performance greatly suffered. The pressures spiked after the lack of air flow, even to the point of the compressor coming apart. Living in the desert A/C is a necessity, especially when the whole family is in the truck. I replaced the whole A/C system, flushed the evaporator and condenser(old style), vacuumed for 1.5 hours and charged with the correct amount of 134a(unless the scale in my machine is off). Replaced the metal fan with a plastic on from dieselsite, which moves a lot more air and brought pressure down compared to the metal fan. Lastly, I added a heater control valve Motorcraft YG350 for the “max air” mod. I wish I can say it made a significant difference, but it did not affect vent temps. As long as the amibent temp isn’t over 100 the a/c system seems to work well, dropping into mid 40s. Some things that may still affect a/c performance is lack of tint and carpet, but I don’t believe it’s as big as an issue like the intercooler transferring heat to the condenser. The OBS solution kit mounts the intercooler in front of the condenser.

I'm sure if I lived in a different climate there would never be an issue. I have thought about adding a few thermocouples across the condenser to see if I make a custom shroud so all of the air is being pulled through it. An engineer at work suggested trying to add some washers to the hood hinge to open it a bit, similar to how some jeeps do it for cooling. I haven’t tried that yet. Pressures at idle now LS-48psi HS-275, and does feel cold, will blow between 55-60f in city traffic. Does not go below 50f on freeway, all of course with amibent temps above 100. Hoping someone may chime in what they may have done to help.

Dieselsite vs stock metal fan






Orifice tube plugged with metal and debris

 

Adding insulation to the black box near the pass valve cover and to the trans tunnel can help as there is temps that run very hot there.
Make sure the re circ is working or you wont get cold temps as it suck in outside hot air.
Add ball valve with 5/8 barbs to block off coolant to heater

New fan clutch?
Wonder if old one wasnt working well. Mine roars when it kicks in but i dont see those high temps like you do often.

Clean the RAD and Condenser fins? blocking air flow makes it worse

Fan shroud missing?

pics of front end?

 

I did add some radiant heat barrier to the evaporator housing. The OE was was tattered and torn. I do have the sound proofing butyl stuff on the floor

I did have to repair the white vacuum hose under the dash for the recirculating door. Had some small cracks and wouldn’t open the door. Verified that the door open and enough vacuum to close the heater control valve.
The max air mod I did essentially is the same as adding a ball valve, but only work on max a/c and by passes the heater core.

fan clutch has 4k miles on it and locks great! The radiator is an eBay aluminum one with 4k on it. I had the condenser on the bench to comb the fins, get rocks out and pressure wash. Did the same for the intercooler too. Lastly, I do have the factory fan shroud in place.

 

What orifice tube did you put back in the a/c?
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ford+a%2Fc...E_For_Ford.jpg

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...be-colors.html

 

I used a red one. Thought about a variable orifice tube, can always recover the refrigerant and swap it if need be.

 

Unfortunately mine does the same after IC install just learned to live with it, I would like to move the condenser in front of the IC but there's no space for the IC to move back with out heavily modifing the radiator support or any space to install the condenser in front of the IC.

 

Slimline pusher fan between IC & condenser, if there's room?

 

Well, then I guess it is what it is. Was hoping I exhausted all reasonable options. I saw dieselsite has a water to air intercooler, don’t really know the efficacy of it. But don’t wanna just throw 1600 when I already have money tied up with my current set up.

 

I did try this with some Chinese fans from Amazon, the ad stated an overall height of 2.5”. Since the inlet&outlet are angled on the intercooler the fans didn’t fit. After that I found out about the dieselsite fan, thought about a 6.0 fan but after reading stories of it hitting the shroud and taking out the rad. I did not wanna risk it

 

Is your old style condenser a multipass one?
Maybe a parallel flow would perform better?

 

Check temperatures for the lines in and out of the condenser. You should see a significant drop in temperature. You need subcooled liquid at the orifice.

Typical situation with lack of condenser air flow would be cooler vent temps at road speed and higher vent temps idling or moving slowly.

Read about subcool, superheat, latent heat.

Got nothing on restacking your IC, condenser. Sorry there. Good luck. Cooler weather should be here soon.

That orifice looks really bad. Cleaning out that system may be complex. Might plug again.

 

it currently has the older style multi pass one, the instructions for the intercooler bracket kit required the use of the OE style. I do have actually have a parallel style that I removed for the bracket kit. May have to fabber cobble some lower mounting brackets. If making a shroud around the intercooler and condenser has no effect I just may try to swap. I drove the truck to work today, only had a high of 95F. Out of the vent was a constant 49-50F. Sitting at a traffic light would rise up to 55F vent temp, which I can totally live with. Triple digit ambient is where the performance really tanks.

 

Try wetting the condenser with a garden hose and see what the gauges say and see if the vent temp comes down. Then watch as the condenser dries out and see what happens.
it should get cooler when wet and this is how I test if my condenser is working. There is a formula to figure out sub cooling and I’ll have to look it up if you want it.
basically make sure all the fin areas on the radiator, condenser and charge air cooler are clean. Just wash them down with garden hose pressure.
Also pull out the fan for the evaporator and make sure that the fins are clean. Normally the face of the evaporator will collect dirt and debris. Also wash that out with garden hose pressure if need be. And make sure the drains are clean.

 

I will take a dive into that! With ambient temps down the a/c performs rather well. It’s been 3 weeks since I replaced the system and flushed. It has been working decent, vent temps drop down into the mid 40s. I’m still going to pursue fabricating a custom shroud around the charge air cooler and see how well it hold up during summer.

 

That system has been coming apart for a while or slowly dying from a leak...low gas equals low oil flow.

Replace the comp, RED FOT, 11oz PAO oil, new PF condenser, fresh Schraders, I would also replace the evap as on the inlet from the fan they are usually filthy, you could pull it and soak then use a bug sprayer to wash it out if you wanted. Spec is 38oz R134A. I finally broke down for my HVAC work and paid big dollars for some killer digital manifold set from Fieldpiece that reads subcool and superheat, realllllllllllllly slick. But with a fresh system, it should work fairly well.

No tint is not helping, at all. These have no roof insulation, nothing really on the floor, nothing on doors. 100% at least use those silver windshield reflectors front and rear when parked, they help to reject piles of heat. Hell, could buy a cheapy and cut up to cover the rear glass if you have an extended cab or crew. F it, gets you through the summer.