Hello all,

I'm wondering what the best route is to climatize my car. It's a 1976 with LS1 swap to be performed soon. Considering 3 routes:

1) I have checked out the Vintage Air system and see that while it has great reviews, it is also a pain to install with removing the dash and is very expensive.
2) Eckler's makes this AC upgrade kit, is it effective? Would it simply bolt into the stock position? I know I'll need a new compressor to fit my Holley mid-mount setup, what else would I need?
3) Just delete the A/C. I live in Maryland and so heat is much more important to me than A/C. How hard is it to simply remove the A/C system but keep my heater? What would happen with my factory A/C and heater control when I select heat vs. AC vs. defrost if the A/C has been removed? Any rewiring to be done or simply unplugging? Any parts I should replace on the heating system "while I'm in there"? I see the heater cores aren't terribly expensive.

Thanks!

 

You live in Maryland and you're more interested in heat for you vette. Interesting, I lived in NJ and there is no way I would ever consider not having AC. Do you know how hot the interior of you vette gets? There are lots of posts about interior heat. I can tell you, my leg would feel like a had sun burn after driving in my vett. You said the vintage air is a pain because you have to remove the dash, you thin that will be a PITA, wait until you have to exchange the heater core on an AC car. That will be a PITA also. I have vintage in my 78 and I can tell you it is straight forward, excellent instructions. The vintage system provide both AC and heat. No matter what you're going to do, you are going to have some work that will be a bit of a pain, but all is very doable.
Your link to Eckler's goes to parts not any kits.
Good luck with whichever route you go. Keep us updated.

 

I would consider another option, leave the AC the way it is and find a bracket that would fit your AC compressor on the LS. Do you have an early ‘76 with the long A6 compressor, or a late one with the R4?

I deleted the entire HVAC system from my car with the plan of going vintage air and an LS in the future. I live in Minnesota and don’t have any issues taking the tops off when it’s hot or putting a jacket on when it’s cold.





If you want to keep just the heat you can always get a non AC option car heater core box. The AC side has its own wiring harness that can be removed.

Since you’re going so deep into the car with an LS swap and everything else I wouldn’t be too worried about keeping the dash together. It’s a bit hard to align, but I promise it’s doable.

 

I moved to Maryland from Arizona, I find the summers here very similar to the fall and winter there
Even with the humidity, mid 90s is refreshing compared to 120 degrees.

I would love to just keep the heater and get an AC delete cover like this one. I haven't been in there yet, does removing the AC components and using that delete cover make it so that I can no longer use my stock heater core? And can all of this be approached from the engine bay while I'm in there for the swap or do I have to rip apart the dash even if all I want to do is delete AC and keep heat?

Oh, and I have the long compressor style, it won't fit with the Holley mid-mount unit which places the compressor in front of the passenger cylinder head. I'd need to change to a short compressor, and I'm not sure how to use a new compressor on an R12 system.

 

Most of the bolts are accessible from the engine bay, the last one you have to get from inside the car, but it’s at the very bottom. You should be able to remove it without having to take anything else out.

The cover you linked is the same design as a non AC car, you shouldn’t have any issues running the heat.

I would give the vintage air a good consideration though. Their compressor will work with your mid mount, it uses R134A refrigerant, and it frees up a lot of real estate in the engine bay in the same way that removing the AC would since everything fits underneath the dash.

 

Removed factory A/C and went with Vintage Air when I made the LS swap. Zero issues.

 

Being in Maryland from Arizona, I would expect you may encounter pop-up rain storms more frequently. It is miserable to be closed up in a non-ac car in the rain in the summer. Maryland gets very hot/humid style. I would make every attempt to keep ac in your car.

I converted my 82 from the old R12 to the R134 by changing the restrictor and oil type. To make it work at top efficiency, I changed the condenser coil (the one by the radiator) to the Parallel Flow style. I kept all internals at factory OEM. No mods to anything in the car. In south Louisiana summer, I was getting 46 degrees from the center grill. My wife had to regularly ask me to lower the ac when she would ride with me. (I rarely ran it when alone.) I would intentionally freeze her out as a way of secretly beating my chest at my success.😁

So, you do not need to change over to an entire new system to get a good ac system.

I now have a Vintage Air in my 75. It works great also. It would be more work to change it, but the VA system works very good.

 

Most of my old cars have no AC, either from the factory or just removed. Doesn't matter much, except it would be nice for a stretch in July.

I vote just ditch it.

 

Well my Vote, which means very little as it's your car. Is keep the AC. Simply upgrade the system with a parallel flow condenser and a modern Sanden compressor.
These cars get bloody hot inside. Even in less than hot weather. I personally think your Mad even considering removing the Air from one of the hottest cars of all time!

 

I was reading through some of your old posts as you went through this decision-making process, and they were very helpful. I think you may have convinced me to give it a shot with the factory system. Could you walk me through this process in a little more detail? I am a complete novice when it comes to air conditioning, as in I am just learning the names of all of the parts! So it looks like I upgrade the condenser to a parallel flow unit, which is what sits in front of the radiator, and I upgrade the compressor to a Sanden, which will fit on my Holly mid mount, and then I will need new lines, what else will I need? Do all the other parts of my factory system work with this? Will the wiring from my stock unit control everything just fine?

By the way, I see that they call you Doc, are you a physician in Aus?

 

I have a BB convertible 1968 C3 and it never came with AC and the higher powered cars could not have it due to the possible engine speeds. Yes, it is hot to drive with the top up but that doesn't mean you won't enjoy driving a Corvette in a bit of rain. I have the hard top and the convertible top for my C3 and I have never used the hard top for any cruising. I bought the car because it is a convertible and I like being outside. If I need a top then I probably don't want to drive it anyway.

I have converted several vehicles including Corvettes with AC to use R134 and I have never changed the compressor or had to use a different type of condenser. I simply remove the existing Freon, flush the system, install a new dryer and change out the fittings. Then I pull a vacuum with my Harbor Freight 2 stage vacuum pump and let it sit for 24 hours before filling the system with new oil and new R134 Freon. The systems have all blown very cold and never had any issues with any of them. AC doesn't have to be rocket science as it has been around a while. A good set of the AC gauges and hoses, a vacuum pump and some basic hand tools are all you need to make the AC work well. I bought three cases of Freon 134 when Trak Auto went broke for $1 a can and still have a good supply.

They might call him "Doc" but he is a "world class" American-born Harley/Corvette mechanic living inEastern Australia and he knows many details that could be very helpful to you. Doc is a very experienced mechanic and he speaks volumes of good information. Just don't ask him about a Honda......

I have lived in Northern Virginia for many years and I can't understand why you think Heat and staying warm is more important than staying cool during the summer. Here in NOVA we expect about 7-8 months of cooling and 3-4 months of heating and that makes me wonder what part of Maryland are you in? Not many cars from Maryland without AC around here.

To stay cool all you have to do is stay moving, even without AC I truly enjoy every moment behind the wheel of a Corvette with over 550 hp. There is a smile burned on the face of Corvette drivers that shows their happiness driving their Corvette whether or not is has AC or not.

Now if I had a coupe then I would be all over getting AC into the vehicle. Since your car has AC it should be easier and less expensive to get that system working.

 

refurbishing my 69 convertible i was faced with the expense of replacing virtually the entire factory HVAC system and taking a chance on it's less than really efficient operation or swapping it out for a more efficient (and modern) vintage air system. since the heater core was shot (along with most of the components of the a/c system) there wasn't a lot of decisions to make in my mind. i wanted the reliability of an updated system and since the dash was already out of the car to remove the heater core, the choice was even more simple in my opinion. VA tech support is great, and interestingly enough when i couldn't get the harness to mate up to the oem a/c-heat system switch, i found out that VA never figured that OEM a/c car owners might be replacing their a/c system in any numbers that would necessitate changing to 2 different harnesses based on application, you will need to change your original switch to one specified for the non a/c vehicles. since my system allows for usage of the OEM center controls, with new face templates, that isn't an issue. BTW when i restored my 78 pace car, yes the a/c blew what some might be considered cold enough, but with the fish bowl back glass and even with loads of dinamat, it had a tough time being really efficient in the south florida summers where i used to live. that also entered into my thought process for my current 69 convertible project.

 

Alright I think you all have collectively swayed me to give updating my current system a shot.

I’ll need to update the compressor to a Sanden style just to fit my front accessory mount for the LS swap, and while I am replacing the radiator I might as well replace the condenser with a parallel flow style as well. Aside from those two items, a new dryer, and adapted hoses, is there anything else I will need to make this work?

Will there need to be any wiring changes from my stock unit to the new Sanden compressor? Or will it just be plug-and-play?

And as to why I think I need heat more than cooling, I think it’s just my nature. I really don’t mind hot outdoor weather having spent many years in Arizona and Texas, Maryland just really doesn’t seem hot to me at all even at its worst. I don’t even use my air conditioner in my house until the interior temperature gets above 82°. But I do not have fun driving in the cold!

 

Updating your current system to use a modern compressor and modern gas. Will not cause much wiring changes. A minor addition to the existing wire that heads to the compressor is all. You will need a VIR Eliminator kit as well as your car is a 76.
Please look for the how to thread I wrote about this a few years ago. 73-E77 Air-Con upgrade.
Yes my Air-Con still blows cold.
Oh, and I'm in Queensland, north eastern Australia.
I think if you find my Air-Con upgrade thread, complete with all my frustrations doing this overseas. You will learn a great deal. If your running electric fans I also show how I wire in a trienary switch to kick the fans when Air-Con system pressures build. Should be everything you need to know.

 

If you can get the stock system to work, great! I think @cagotzmann kept the stock system with his LS3 swap, so it can fit, and hopefully @4-vettes and others can help you get squared away.

The best reason to go with a Vintage Air system is the space savings. Everything goes under the dash (which, granted, is harder to reach in a 76 than in a 78-82).

With the T-tops off, windows down, and a decent tune with plenty of advance, I've never been cooked in the car. I have been frozen, though. 100%, I would rather have heat than AC if I had to choose for where I live (Virginia). I didn't see it answered, but the AC-Delete kit allows use of a stock C3 heater coil, just not the one that came with your car, as they are different between AC and non-AC.

 

If all your controls are working. Doing a simple upgrade is clearly cost and labor effective.

 

Great, all the controls work fine from what I can tell. I’m going to give it a shot.

 

Sorry I'm just no good at attaching links. But if you can find my 73-E77 Air-Con upgrade thread I believe you will find it useful.

 

scuderia_kannan
below is the link to 4-vettes post:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...n-upgrade.html

BUT I would rip out all the old garbage just for the room. You can get a temporary heater if you're going to drive in the cold and put in the vintage air later. I agree with the Trinary Switch installation also....do it while you have the a/c down for maintenance and/or upgrades. My Hot Rod Air aftermarket a/c came with a Binary switch so when I took it down to squish in the biggest condenser I could fit I also changed to a Trinary Switch.

If you search "portable car heaters for vehicle" in amazon you find bunches of heaters for under 30 bucks. That way you can have heat while you ponder your vintage air....

 

Heated seats are surprisingly inexpensive, either as inserts or seasonal covers. If you are redoing seats anyway, it's certainly worth considering. You should have plenty of surplus current from the LS alternator.