Okay I won't lie and say I know everything about A/c, I have factory air on my 86 El Camino but man does it leave something to be desired. Okay so I'm either thinking of canablizing an SUV's A/C unit and trying for better quality parts...or not joke, it's easy enough to get an entire A/C system form the yard...can I run to A/C systems? I know I know, you're all probably like "why?!!?". Well It's something I'm looking into. truth be told I'm working on an electric motor that'd spin the compressor to simulate the belt, and take my current A/C off the belt and the compressor off the engine and mounted to the bay wall. I don't wanna jack up my nice A/C unit so I figure I could try this with salvaged parts!
I'm looking to ease the A/C stress on my motor with this experiment, I thought maybe I could try this A?C setup with 2 A/C units. Or would I be better off with a big ole Suburban Gorilla's A/C system under the hood?
If you all feel the SUV would be a good option I'll look into rebuilding one and customizing how it will sit in my bay so that way it'd be a nice easy swap to better air.

Why not just find and fix the problem with the factory air? Seems to me that would be the easiest solution.

As for installing a unit from an SUV, you won't find much in the way of interchangeability .
Another thing I might add: The a/c system in the El Camino is the same as those used in the other G-Bodies, ie., coupes, sedans and station wagons. That being said, the El Camino has the least amount of cabin area from which to remove heat.

I for one, have installed in my 83 a rear auxiliary a/c and heater unit in the spare tire well. Not that it needed one, but just for the heck of it and it is good advertising for my business.
Nothing like cruising down the road with frost on the inside of the windows.

There are Electrical AC Compressors available. I looked into them when I was thinking of building an Electric Car. Here's a sample. You can possibly find a used one in a wrecked Prius or other Electric vehicle.
http://www.globaldensoproducts.com/hvc/electric_compressor.html

A good running Stock AC system should be putting out 36-38 degree air at the center vents using R12. I get 38-40 with R134. Either of those is enough to freeze me out , even in 100 degree+ weather. The fan output is not as strong as some of the newer vehicles, but I found replacing the 25 year old fan with a new replacement helped a lot with the airflow. Worth the $20!

cool is good,cold is real good..:texas:
darbysan
did you find out how many amps it needs ?
being for an electric car im assuming its not 12 volts??

OH! Thanks for that lead Darbysan. I too considered an electric El Camino(reason being I want to do a few mior changes that will make a diffrence with my gas El Camino), plus if you manage a really light body...electric will always beat the torque of a gas engine! You ever see that video where I guy made a Lotus Super 7 and raced it on a circle track against a Ferrari? Frerrai said he wasn't made for turns, so a NASCAR driver is called out with his stock car(made for circles), electric car beat him too. And he made it for 34 thousand I belive? He had excellent 6 piston brakes and 4 piston rears. 3.73 posi? He had A/C and a were insulated/light weight paneling system that went over the roll bar like a convertible. I can't find the video anymore but man was that guy awesome!
Back to the A/C????? Beleive me Acuath I know already that factory air in this G-Body is the same for all G-bodies. I realized to do this epxeriment I could get air from Monte Carlo's maybe even the GNX's? POint is the factory air is inadeqaute. My system is brand new for the most part. i rebuilt it and took it to a mechanic. asked him to check my work. he said I forgot to rebuild the A/C inner cooler in front of the radiator? so he flushed it and tweaked that bit and gave me a charge of Freon for 150. has worked for 1 year no problem. I was considering am A/C unit off a newer later model SUV, or anything for that matter. My brother has a Chevy Cavaleir and it's A/C is great. I can buy it new for like 300. My Dad's Exteria is great too. Anything after 200 has good A/C it seems and I know I'd have to custom a mount and tweak a new houseing. that's no big deal. Just wondering if this has been done before. Could you tell me more about the spare tire welled relocation? In all honesty I didn't think anyone had done that and that was part of my plan! I was gonna use and electric compressor like Darbysan said and move the whole thing to the rear and fab up some vent tube's that came out of the original factory air slots!?!
Please or please tell me more about your 83 A/C? Or is it trade secrets for your business, guessing you are a professional A/C guy? You live in the Panhandle?

Not a relocation but an addition to the factory unit. No trade secret, just a rear evaporator/blower assembly installed behind the seats in the spare tire well. The unit ties into the factory system suction and liquid lines. It is similar to this one here:
http://www.proairllc.com/images/limo_980.gif

Here is the only as installed photo I have:

http://www.elcaminocentral.com/users/acauth1/interior3.jpg

darbysan
did you find out how many amps it needs ?
being for an electric car im assuming its not 12 volts??

Sorry, never got that deep into it. When the estimates got over 20K for the conversion, I decided to stick with TPI for now- That was expensive enough:smileyb:

here's a link for more info/research
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5527

For the Elky Electric, check out this guy's site. Nice job on an Elky Electric
http://www.tdlelectronics.com/EV.shtml

Yeah Electrics are expsensive! I'll check him out. They have some nice kit cars you can build accodring to plans though for lik 15K from scratch.

Thanks Acauth.
I may consider some kind of evaporater if it's really that great when I move the ENTIRE system to the spare tire well.
May have to cut the smuggler's box open and run the a lil closer to the ground for clearence. I want to take the factory air OFF the belt and not leave it under the hood.
What was the benefit of an evapoter anyway? When I move the system would it really be that great? And how much cash we talkin about anyhow?
I want my A/C to blow nice cool air, not blow dollars back at me becuase it was so exspensive:poke:
lol, thanks for the suggestiuon of an evaporater none the less. I have a feeling it'll be a nice improvment over factory air. By the way, I like the fire exstinguisher. I actually have one mount there my self. As well as a Sallen exstinguisher for electrical fire under my seat(had my electrical system spark wires and start a small fire while back). Nice to see a fellow well prepaired El Camino ;)

The benefit is that it is a great marketing tool. Mind you it is installed in my cruiser, my other two Elkies do not have it since the a/c in them work exceptionally well... especially with the mercury busting 112* here in Texas this last summer.

Personally, I would not install only a rear mounted a/c in any car due to the fact that an a/c system cools by removing heat. I would rather have the vents directed back at me from the dash vents instead of the vents blowing on the back of my seat. Sure, it will "cool" the passenger compartment, but cold air on my face and body is so much nicer and cools me off so much faster.

I want my A/C to blow nice cool air, not blow dollars back at me becuase it was so exspensive

I would suggest getting your factory system working as it should, that may mean taking it to a quailified a/c shop. Many shops hang "A/C Service" shingles on their buildings, but that does not mean they know what they are doing. Believe it or not, much of my business comes from other shops and dealerships who have failed to fix the systems correctly.

So, honestly, if you are on a budget, fix what you got.

yea I've taken it to several shops. They all say it looks good and legit. They even test drove in my passenger seat and said it feels about right. The A/C was not meant to be ice cold blowing on the old cars like today's. I mean I can hop in my Dad's SUV and the A/C can blow like a tornado...mine blows fairly good on the highest fan setting but still week tea on some hot florida days. 100 degrees with our humidity...sucks, You've probably got it worse. I was gonna actually route pipe's down through the floor on the underside of the car and up through the dash. I've thought this out a lil. That's why I want a better system. I was even going to route induct pipe like a reversed exhuast to the A/C so it has fresh air as well as vents for excess air! I'm good with Auto CAD and have designed some pretty wild things. In highschool, my buddy and me built an ROV and won several compitetions and were flown to Hawaii to compete(all expsense paid), the compitetion last 3 days...we stayed for 3 weeks ;) Lol, surfing was awesome! Florida just doesn't have good waves!

I plan on trying to do this setup with spare parts as a prototype in a mock up sze constraints with the new location. Test it and if it works...I'll have a unique El Camino for sure!!!!! lol. I'll even use cosntraints of the under body for realistic pipe routing. I have way better clearence than most Elky's though becuase I removed those endents behind my seat to make room for this A/C project, as well as my exhuast I'm about to do. I'll come back to this thread when I succeed!!! The Evaporater could be a nice edition, perhap i could fit it inside the dash so I have a lil extra boost spraying me with cold air versus just filling the cab with cool air. Like you said that is nice. I actually ditched the factory 'fan' blowing styled setup and installed mini house fans inside the dash. They work great. I even slowed their axle speeds so they aren't so loud. NOT like I could hear it above my exhuast anyway.

Seeing how what i got works, I'm just peiceing this dream A/c together with spare parts. I've got a few blower cores and A/C compressors, and condesnores. I literaly got 2 of most parts of entire systems. One was off G-Body parts like mine(good for parts at the very least). And I got some parts mix and matched off of an 03 Mustang(they have nice A/C), and a whole system off an SUV that was realtively new. An 05 I believe. The whole SUV system ran me 17 bucks, sold at weight.
The 2 G-Body's system(almost two complete sets) and the alternator and mustang vent tubing combined, also was sold at weight, I got it all for 35 bucks. So that's 50 bucks! For a bunch of parts! I got most of that a year ago anyhow. I have another 35gallon tub of parts like Acuaters and windsheild wiper motors, power window switch and motors, hood hinges, etc. I have a few parts lying around for a Wieland 871 blower I got too at a steal! I've got less than 200 bucks invested in tons of parts I could use for this product and more. I have another 300 invested in spare fenders, 1/4 panels/ hoods, even doors. Just in case I need to do some repairs. 500 bucks over the last two years spent on parts is less than most guys seem to spend a year on their project rides. I'd say my budgeting is pretty good, besides why fix what I have? I did say it was working in great order as is. I just want something better than G-Body air like modern SUV stuff ;)
Until summer hits I'm just gonna block off the floor vents. SUV's have better air coming out of dash vents if it doesnt split the air between the dah vents and the floorboard aim vent. So that'll help a bit till i get the time.

I replaced my complete system with new parts and 134a refg. it blows 40d. It's to cold i have to run it on low it's so cold. I didn't put any special parts just replaced what was there, and it was 100d still 40d. :secret:

I'll second the cooling ability of a properly working stock system. I've been able to see my breath on 90 degree days.

2-65 theory works best here... 2 windows, 65 MPH... and i live in AZ where it was 120 last summer...lol. Will be getting mine fixed though, I'm just planning on getting a higher output blower motor for mine that'll blow the cool air through faster... My two cents...