How cold is your air conditioner?

[sly1types]

My A/C works, but not very well. I checked the level and with my gauge/refill kit says it's full at 45psi.

It was 90 today and going down the highway it would get to 37deg, but doing around town it is in the high 40's. I was checking this via my laser temp gun.

Is there anything I can do to get it colder when in town? Should I have my shop evacuate the system and refill with new R134?

thanks!

[Lilpooh]

Some model trucks came with a vacuum operated valve on the heater hose going to the heater core. When you turn your A/C to max, it's suppose to shut off the coolant flow to the heater core. If you have this inline valve, there should be a gray vacuum line going to the front of it, sometimes the hose gets knocked off.

[Alex02ws6]

Thats pretty cold there, i got a new compressor, condensor, and accumulator and the coldest ive seen is 55 at 70mph while the ouside was 85, i dont think thats normal

[tnet69]

First of all you can't tell if your system is full by the pressure you read. You need to know temp also to figure out superheat or subcooling. I read an article about the valve also that stops the coolant flow. Some of the fords were not shipped with them installed. You will have to look under your hood to see if yours is in there or not. If not that is your problem. Forty degrees is pretty cold though.

[Alex02ws6]

any body else taken a temp of the a/c now that its been like 150F outside lol... mine has anly been gettin to like 65 on the highway the temp here in west texas been around 106 idling i can only get like 75, anybody know of any thing i can try to get colder air? its a 06 with new compressor,condensor and accumulator

[the chad]

thats not bad...has anyone looked into the a/c underpulley system?

[Lilpooh]

Originally Posted by Alex02ws6

any body else taken a temp of the a/c now that its been like 150F outside lol... mine has anly been gettin to like 65 on the highway the temp here in west texas been around 106 idling i can only get like 75, anybody know of any thing i can try to get colder air? its a 06 with new compressor,condensor and accumulator

Do you have the inline vacuum operated valve that shuts off the coolant flow to the heater core? If not you could add one to see if it helps.

[Alex02ws6]

Originally Posted by Lilpooh

Do you have the inline vacuum operated valve that shuts off the coolant flow to the heater core? If not you could add one to see if it helps.

yea it has one,and i believe its workin because when i unplug the little hose the valve moves.

[HAM_RADIO_MAN]

My vent temp is about 40 deg. For many different reasons you can’t expect stellar performance at idle. There is less air to cool the condenser and the compressor isn’t moving as much Freon. Make sure you wash the bugs and crud out of the condenser on your truck and house for that matter. A clean condenser equals a happy compressor. I don’t think you have a cabin air filter , but if you do make sure that’s in good condition. You will need to have the correct amount of Freon in your truck. The temp scale on the gauges tells you roughly what temperature the Freon is evaporating and condensing at. You want your evaporator to be a little above freezing say 33-36 degrees as a general rule your condensing temp should be 30 to 40 degrees above the outdoor temp. I would suggest taking these measurements at high Idle because that engine speed is closer to the real world operation condition of your tuck. So, that means now is a great time to finally do that high idle mod. These are rule of thumb generalizations and I am sure all the professional ac guys out there are shrieking in horror. I am a refrigeration mechanic so I know that I have only touched on the high spots, but the idea here is to give the shade tree guys a fighting chance to stay cool without blowing their truck up. One very important thing to know is, if your system is empty you must use a quality vacuum pump to remove the air before you recharge. If you don’t you will have no cooling sky-high head pressure and wonder why? Ok, so use a vacuum pump. Take 15 min with Google and learn how a basic refrigeration cyle works if you don't already know and that will clear up a lot of the smoke and majic. Stay cool!!
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