Air Conditioning into a n/a 82 Westy Diesel??

[dixoncj]

Hey Guys,
I'm thinking of buying an 82 diesel westy. It's bone stock. I live in the south and don't relish the idea of summers in it thoought. Has anyone ever put a behr or vanagon unit onto a diesel w/o a turbo? Is it possible to mount the compressor? It's flat where I live, so slow hills aren't really an issue. Can it be done??
Thanks for any advice or links elsewhere to this topic.
Chris Dixon

[smithnt]

When I rebuilt the 1.6NA on my '82, I pulled the engine from my dads old rabbit and it had an air conditioning compressor on it. It is possible to use the rabbit bracket and compressor, but there are other components that you'll need to make it work, and there are additional electrical power requirements that will need to be accounted for and I'm not sure if that compressor will have a high enough mass flow rate to cool the van. I installed the compressor and bracket with the idea of air-conditioning the van, but when I started into the other components, I decided it wasn't worth the effort.

[MarkWard]

My guess would be the van won't get out of it's own way with the air on. The brackets and parts exist. You could rig a switch and relay to cut out the compressor under full throttle, so you could get up to cruising speed and then the compressor could kick back on. Should be fine in town.
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[?Waldo?]

I'm interested in what you find as I will be doing very similar before long. I have looked at quite a few setups in junkyards and all that I've seen require that the alternator rotate up in order to make room for the A/C compressor below. The alternator will then protrude into the engine lid. I eagerly look forward to being shown how this is not the case as I've resigned myself to building custom alt and a/c brackets. Also, FWIW, the '82s all had a big red sticker on the timing belt cover that said that the cooling system is not equipped to handle the added load of a/c. I think that the engine is the issue and not the cooling system, as the cooling system is 3 times what is needed to cool the engine.

Andrew

[morymob]

If u install ac make sure u r in 3d gear or down hill before turning on!!!!!

[POS]

"A Snowballs chance in Hell" is what first comes to mind.
I think it will work if you upgrade to a TDI.
An auto A/C unit can take 10 h.p. or better, your vanagon has under 50 h.p.
I have heard of some new units taking only 1-2 h.p.

L.O.L.

Peace n'grease
David

[ValleyHappy]

never drove a diesel vanagon but did drive a diesel rabbit years ago. it's obviously alot lighter than a vanagon and wouldn't have put ac in it either. i agree with the -10 hp. i did a 2.1 gl and it is quite noticable + my gas mileage drops close to 2 mpg with ac....not that mpg are a concern in a diesel. it would be cool to find an alternative compressor to the beefy vanagon compressors. Vanagon ac gets a lot of grief but when it is working properly it blows a high volume is ice cold air.

good luck
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09 Suzuki SX-4 Crossover

[devesvws]

sold my 82 diesel camper on feb 18 2001 why? no a/c vanagons are hot as hell with out a/c but boy do i wish i still had it i miss the 30 mpg