| Author | Message | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)
Rating: N/A |
All you Crown guys who havn't figured out how to mount your engine driven AC compressor.... here's (finally!) my fairly straightforward way to do it although it takes some machining... http://www.heartmagic.com/engineACdays/EngineDrivenACdays.html Cheers Gary | ||
| R.C.Bishop (128.123.221.189)
Rating: N/A |
Gary.....an ambitious project, to be sure. Thanx for the info. Let's see, all that milling and shop time, that A/C probably topped out at about what I was quoted to have it done by an outside shop....about $2 big ones.  RCB | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)
Rating: N/A |
hee hee... of course if I counted my hours in this entire bus the same way I guess I should have just gone out and bought a new prevost!! But not counting hours (hey, when you're having fun, it's FUN right?!!) the whole system cost me just under $1k... | ||
| Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (63.224.197.10)
Rating: N/A |
Gee Gary, how about in your plentiful spare time you come up here to SW Oregon and do my Crown coach conversion ssoooooos I can sit under a shade tree having a beer watching you sweat? He he he. Fantastic photos. Kinda gets me want to get going soosss my dash can end up looking like yours with a dedicated AC unit that keeps the driver cool at all times. Your engine cooling situation make me wonder if my plans may be too grandose for my stock radiator. I really want to retune my 250 Cummins into a 400 Cummins. Now I wonder if this is a good idea, besides all the $$$ it would take, not counting the hassle of dropping out the Big Cam to redo all the insides of the engine. Anyway, all of this typing and thinking has exhausted me. Time for another cold one while this feeble mind and weak body reponders the unponderable. CROWNS FOREVER!!! Henry of CJ | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)
Rating: N/A |
Well Henry, two trains of thought...maybe three... One is that the reason for doing a conversion is that you like to do conversions, and it really doesn't matter if you ever drive the thing, so it doesn't matter what you do to it or how long it takes. Two, you want a real neat machine to take vacations with, or live in, and doing the conversion is just a greasy means to an end, and should take as little time as possible Three, a combination of both (mee) I love doing the work but I'm not gonna take fifteen years to finish it, because I want to drive it while I'm still able to do so. That in mind, though I do some very nasty things to my bus, in the long run if I wanted a bigger engine I probably would have bought a bus with a bigger engine in the first place, because that type of a modification will simply take toooooo long and there's toooooo much stuff to do to make it work well. Just changing the tranny from a 5 speed to a 9 speed was quite enough of the big heavy stuff for me... engine? Nope.... There's a limit to how much time I am willing to be greasy, because I also love being on the road with the contraption. My guess is that your stock radiator would be pitifully small for a 400hp engine, judging from my experience with both this bus and my last one. The radiatior can easily be made twice as thick though....if you have a couple grand to blow at a radiator shop... I'm sure that would make it work just fine.... Anyway, definitely have yer beer, and while you're enjoying that, I'll be under my bus taking all the damned belts off so I can get the new steering pump belt on. That's one thing I HATE about the Crown... as you go farther back in belts, you have to take every belt in front of it off to get at them, and in a Crown, that's a half-a-day's job!! Good reason to put all new ones on and only do it once in a very long while.... Cheers Gary | ||
| FAST FRED (67.75.96.58) Rating: N/A |
"Well Henry, two trains of thought...maybe three... " "One is that the reason for doing a conversion is that you like to do conversions, and it really doesn't matter if you ever drive the thing," "Two, you want a real neat machine to take vacations with, or live in, and doing the conversion is just a greasy means to an end, and should take as little time as possible." Guess I'm in the third class , I love DRIVING the coach , and find it a blast! The conversion is only to justify the Cost of maintaining such an expensive to repair vehicle. Sure, its nice to have empty bays and be able to bring home a find like nice 250cc BMW from the 50's in a bay effortlessly. Sure its nice to have sooo much volume inside between N/S transits , and be actually able to SEE out for most of the bus legnth. But the fun really doesn't begin till the 4106,Sportscar of Coaches hits the Blue highways , and rolls delightfully thru the off track areas . The Stab & Steer folks on the Superslab seldome get to visit the real America (or Canada).. Not a flying J or K mart "camper" , I prefer the oldest campgrounds findable, on the theory that the oldest place was built long ago in the prettyest place. Works for ME, FAST FRED | ||
| Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)
Rating: N/A |
The saga ends...happily... Today I finally got all my new AC hoses measured, crimped, installed and connected, everything finished ( as always, did it all myself), and finally I called Gus the AC pro guy. He walked me thru "Charging an AC system for dummies" over the phone... I had already sucked the system with my old refrigeration vacuum pump that I dug out of the attic... we started by putting two pounds of R-134 into the system and then I watched the gauge set... eventually (with the engine running and the AC turned up full) it took 2 pounds and 8 ounces to get the high side at 185-195, and the low side at around 25psi... cold air now blows happily out of my system, the cabin gets chilly fairly fast, and I'm about as happy as can be!!! NO MORE miserable hot days driving thru the deserts!! Whoopee!! I want to thank Mallie and Chuck Lott for their help, and again I want to recommend that if you need AC stuff from A-Z, Gus is a very good guy to get it from. He has the parts, the hoses, the tools, the knowledge, and is very reasonable on prices. He can be reached by emailing him at this address... acprogus "at" cs "dot" com happy happy joy joy.... now to go after the frikkin ants.... Gary |