Experience with RetroAir Kit (condensation)

I use an asbestos-type wrap. The cooling hoses run right next to the exhaust manifolds and pipes, so I wrapped them carefully to keep the “cool in”.

LLoyd

A step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.

Kurt Vonnegut

That picture is in the cabin, above the accelerator and behind the evaporator. Those fittings connect to evap and drop on my feet.

In the engine bay there is a thick heat insulated wrap over the hoses.

As David said. I was suggesting what to use inside the cabin.

Also, I stuffed the cavity the hoses go through on the bulkhead full of foam rubber. That’s a common air leak point pouring hot engine compartment air into the cabin.

Thanks I ordered some for delivery tomorrow. I will check the penetration, but I think it’s filled with a pliable putty like substance. Will double check.

Thanks.

I had to cut the hole in the firewall, so made it such that the big hose fits directly under the small one. A right angle fitting on the hose end and second loose 90 fitting take care of the lateral and vertical shift.

You might find it locally at an AC supply store if there is one in your town.

As long as something is there to block air from coming in. I had foam rubber handy, you had putty, both work.

David,

I know you are busy sorting and dialing this in…but, if you could, and when you get a chance a photo or photo’s of the engine compartment showing the compressor and bracket AND the alternator and bracket…
Want and will install air on my 2+2…has now and will upgrade

Of note…I have gone to 1 wire alternator cs-130 chromed for some $96 shipped …I use these on my sailboat in hot and humid Panama in the engine room pushing 4 deep cycle batteries…the real deal here

Thanks,
In advance
Mitch 970 779 0456

I’ll take better pics in the next day or so, but here is what I have today. Note that I have an upgraded radiator and cool catz fans. The installers said this was a bear to get fit in there:

Ask and you shall receive…
You know I have become a big fan of the 2+2 (I have a ots, coupe and 2+2)…with jaguars attempt to improve the drag coefficient by pulling the windshield forward to get more tilt…approaching modern areodynamics
Thanks

I think they did it strictly to improve the proportions of the car in profile. As a bonus one can replace the windscreen squirter without having to go to the orthopedic surgeon afterward.

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The windshield is to steep (in wind tunnel tests)…it was not designed correctly by Melcom…so the long wheel base came later and a change was made…even after the '67 long wheel base came out…That is a clue…so I have got to believe for aroedynamics…the change was made…lets get Melcom out of the grave and find out…
One other question, to ask Melcom, did you forget to incorperate light fixtures in your drawings?? I am betting he did…that’s why we get the stuck on look…both front and back.
When we look at style changes for a model…we see the windshield is the last to be changed…GM’s truck… same windshield '73-'87…comes to mind… but restyled in '80… Yet Jag changed and spent the money…
Sure would like to know

incidentally…I am NOT a GM fan…pretty sure GM lobbied congress for collision bumpers to eliminate competition…and it sure did…Dad was pretty good friends with a high up GM exec in Chicago…

How perfect does the tape need to be? It was tight and I think I got 99% coverage but hard to know for sure.

Tape helped a little, but need better coverage I think.

Took for a long drive yesterday and the AC really not living up to expectations. I’m not expecting miracles, but if I put it on high it’s just a spitting, drooling, mess.

Hmmm.

David;
I don’t know if this may help the problem you have with the ‘spitting’ your A/C evaporator does as you run it. This is what my evaporator has and I think it is original to the car, a 70 2+2.
1-jag%20restoration%20032
This is the evaporator as I took it apart. The ‘front’ of the evaporator is to the left. The ‘silvery’ item is a mesh ‘grill’ much like some ‘old’ home A/C filter material I remember.
2-jag%20restoration%20033
This is another view of it from the front of the unit.
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This is a view as it is installed in front of the evaporator on reassembly.
My impression (and only my impression) of this piece of material is to catch and or deflect any water droplets as they reach the front of the evaporator. They then should drain out via the condensate tubes.
I have never looked at the ‘Retro Aire’ unit other then pictures in the ads.
The A/C unit helps but it does not work as the units in our modern cars but then if that is what we want we may have to drive our modern car.

Regards, Joel.

I’ve had a RetroAir kit in my SII FHC for about 4 years.

When I first fired it up, I got marginal cool air out the right vents and a lot of warm air out the far left vents. Removing the vents it was apparent there was a lot of flow area bypassing the evaporator coil on the left (behind the controls) and some area over the top of the coils.I talked to Rock, (who designed the system, then owned the company, and has since retired) and he said they initially sealed those flow areas but then the velocity through the coils was so high that the condensed moisture would be picked up and blow out the front. The way they chose to drop the air velocity was to provide more area by opening up around the coils.

Problem #2: I charged the system as recommend by weight and didn’t pay a lot of attention to pressure. I got a lot of coil freezing up, would have to shut the system off while it thawed and dripped ware on the passenger. Didn’t get any complaints about that when its hotter than * outside and the passenger is wearing shorts. I finally put the gauges on it and found that the suction pressure was down in the 20-25 psi range which for 134a is an equivalent temp below 32 F. Adding refrigerant to bring the suction pressure up to about 30psi (34 F) fixed that problem.

My final solution was to disassemble the evaporator unit and seal all the bypass areas so all the fan output goes through the coils. I decided I could live with a little spitting if it gave me more cold air. This might not be acceptable in a more humid climate. This will be the first summer in this configuration, so far so good.

One more problem. The belt configuration provides marginal contact between the belt and the water pump pulley. I learned the hard way that the water pump belt needs to be really tight - tighter than I like to run it. Story for another day.

At this point, all I can say is I really have AC and I can feel it. Its a lot better on the passenger side because most of the vents are right of center. We do a 100 mile at 100 F event in August. We’ll see how it holds up.

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All of this makes me wonder: how do the MILLIONS of AC’ed production vehicles deal, most successfuly, with the exact same set of physical issues?

That’s the key. When you are producing millions of them you can afford to, in fact must spend talent and money to design a bulletproof system. And they are an integrated unit, not an add on.

Contrast that with jaguar who produced relatively few E-types with AC and the units they installed were never fully integrated into the car, they were add on units shoehorned into an already tight cockpit and engine bay. Despite those handicaps it works fairly well.

Then you have aftermarket units that are produced in even smaller numbers, again designed to be installed in a car not originally designed to have AC.

Clearly: the problem of condensation/ getting rid of it must be a FAR more complex one than I ever imagined.

It’s fair to assume something is seriously wrong. I have the stock setup and it will freeze me out of the cockpit. And that is with tho old York compressor…

LLoyd

A step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.

Kurt Vonnegut

Maybe I should move back to my stock evaporator :slight_smile: