Aftermarket A/C - Td5 110 Wagon

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Originally Posted by VladTepes

Very nice. Also watching with keen interest. One of my main concerns is the required BTU of the unit for (in my case) a dual cab ute. Raiman has found a 18,000BTU cooling only unit. The same brand has nother one which is has a cooling and heating function but I think it was 12 or 14K BTU ? If it was suffucent to get a good cool cabin then the heating aspect might be handy for trips south or west (in winter).
Being Qld though the cooling part defintely has to be up to scratch !

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Whilst the Defender heater is not one of the best around , its way better than the A/C. One problem is the ciooling system would be rather difficult to bleed, but with a bleed valve on the ceiling and a way to fill from there it may work but I dont fancy all that OAT fluid spewing onto the back floor.

But with the factory A/C removed from under the dashboard the heater does work a lot better -( onto the feet anyway ) as it dosent have to go thru the extra ducting constrictions.

A bit of wiring today. Ive decided to simplify the A/C electrics and use the aftermarket switchgear. I dont see any reason at all to let the Td5 ECU have any say so over the A/C. Why complicate things. If the A/C stops working I'm going to know about it, I dont need a computer to tell me. As far as the ECU thinks the A/C will just be off or unplugged.

Removing the loom across the front of the engine & unwind the tape to expose 4 wires, two thin brown wires go the the Coolant temp sensor. The Black wire (no1) is Compressor Clutch -ve, The Green wire (no2) is Compressor clutch +ve .

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1630.jpg

Splice extension wires onto clutch wires & extend loom. Green wire will go a new Compressor relay which will be stuck next to my headlight relays. I also traced my Condensor fan wires to the old disconnected EGR loom under the Power Steering bottle. I cut the wires out of the loom and bought them up to relay area. I'm going to wire the condensor fan to come on with the Compressor and will also take any ECU control away from it, I'll add an extra Switch on the dashboard where I can manually switch the fan on if req.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1631.jpg

I've bought all wires out in the fusepanel area, Oh its soooo easy to get to the fuses now without that 'orrible A/C in the way :D

Arrow number one points to the green 30A fuse which provides +12v Batt to the Thick brown wire on the old A/C plug (Arrow no 2) the White - Green stripe wire on the plug is +12v IGN from the yellow 20A fuse (next to the 30A fuse) . Blue - Black stripe is -ve 12v.
I'll use these wires to power the new A/C fan via a relay.

Arrow 3 points to a 5-core trailer cable which runs thru the dash up the passenger side windscreen pillar, then to the new rear A/C unit along the indside gutter under headlining.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1632.jpg

One thing about this A/C unit, it has twin motors, each motor has 2 fans, one fan for each vent. It Blows... Heaps sitting in the front the air movement is plenty strong enough - I do not think I'll bother with an overhead console.

Problem with twin motors is it drones, as a result of the motors not doing EXACTLY the same RPM, you get a resonance. Its the sound I used to love when I was building twin engined R/C aircraft , there was nothing like the sound of a twin with prop tips just cracking the sound barrier & just out of sync. ... something I think I'm going to dislike now.

Cripes Don. You're making better progress than me (you don't work full time do you :)?). I've been getting a bit of wiring done here and there and taking some shots so hope to provide an update on my Project soon.

Thanks for the detailed details ;),
James.

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Originally Posted by rainman

Cripes Don. You're making better progress than me (you don't work full time do you :)?). I've been getting a bit of wiring done here and there and taking some shots so hope to provide an update on my Project soon.

Thanks for the detailed details ;),
James.

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No, good guess. I'm self employed and jobs are few and far between because of the slump in the construction industry, combined with the very wet winter - no one is digging. It should pick up soon. So If I did get some work I'd be sort of annoyed because its holding up progress on my project :twisted:.

Lots of details not only helps others it will probably help me too because I or somone else might have to look back at what I did some stage if I ever get a fault.

Will soon see as I'm booked in on Friday to get the plumbing fitted off and gassed up :)

Nice work Don - I had thought the ECU needed to know when the compressor was engaged to manage idle up - that is why I had an 'AC on' feed to the ECU via the brown plug. Sounds like you've discovered this wasn't really necessary. Look forward to hearing about cooling performance.

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Originally Posted by goingbush

A bit of wiring today. Ive decided to simplify the A/C electrics and use the aftermarket switchgear. I dont see any reason at all to let the Td5 ECU have any say so over the A/C. Why complicate things. If the A/C stops working I'm going to know about it, I dont need a computer to tell me. As far as the ECU thinks the A/C will just be off or unplugged.
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Desn't the ECU cycle the compressor off momentarily under load e.g. when first pulling away from a stop, or hasn't Land Rover identified that issue?

Wires terminated on a IPF relay, (top arrow) the Condensor fan draws more than 10A ( went off the scale on my multimeter) so does need a relay. Green wires (bottom arrow) are from the switch inside & to the Fan relay & compressor magnet. Black wires on the mounting bolt are the Earth (-ve 12v) supply to the Fan & compressor, The Aliminium strap its mounted on is independantly earthed via the thick blue wire at the front.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1571.jpg


Switchgear mounted in a small project box from Jaycar. I had to take the black cover off the temp control knob as I drilled the facia hole too far to the left & it would not fit. Sprayed the box black with some Plastic Bumper paint - good stuff. (overspray on my hand)

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1572.jpg

The holes under the box are so I can poke a screwdriver thru to mount the box. There is a 30Amp relay mounted behind the box that provides power from the prev mentioned 30A fuse via the toggle switch which feeds from the Green -white stripe IGN supply.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1573.jpg

Best place I could find to mount it, in retrospect I could have moved my Trailer brake controller & put it there but its still easy to reach. And does not look out of place in the Defender.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1574.jpg

Hopefully next post should be on Friday after I'm home from KAR AIR in Ferntree Gully with a report on how good or otherwise it performs.


.

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Originally Posted by towe0609

Nice work Don - I had thought the ECU needed to know when the compressor was engaged to manage idle up - that is why I had an 'AC on' feed to the ECU via the brown plug. Sounds like you've discovered this wasn't really necessary. Look forward to hearing about cooling performance.

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No and Yes. Ive decided to wire the A/C independant of the ECU, but I might yet still have to refer to your notes. I havent actually run the car with the compressor engaged yet because Ive cut the refrigerant lines & if I run the pump it will spew whats left of the oil in the system all over the place. So far my testing has only been with the engine switched off.

I'm thinking the ECU is smart enough to keep the idle constant at 800 anyway, but if not I'll go ahead and hook up that trigger wire. I bypassed the need for the ECU to send an earth to the compressor but the idle is still an unknown.

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Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Desn't the ECU cycle the compressor off under load e.g. when first pulling away from a stop, or hasn't Land Rover identified that issue?

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Good Question, I've never actually noticed. Perhaps someone that still got a working Td5 Defender A/C can check for me.
I do know that I always turned off the A/C when EGT's start rising when towing up a hill. Perhaps hooking the trigger wire up for idle up will also serve this purpose, I can always re-connect the earth feed from the ECU to disable the compressor if that is the case. Will have a play with it when its all gassed up.


thanks ..Don

Come home from KAR AIR this arvo very pleased with myself.
Aircon install is a bloody ripper.

I received a bit of a speaking to for releasing the old gas into the atmosphere, I wont be making that mistake again. Also forgot to take the old evaporator with me so did not have my old pressure switch. Luckily Andrew had a new Rover reciever / Drier in stock with a port for a pressure switch. Its an exact match for the standard Defender unit but also has a sight glass intop.

The new Reciever / Drier with pressure switch is shown below. (I wired the switch into the Compresser loom after taking the photo).

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1496.jpg

Image below shows the new plumbing grafted to the old Td5 pipework

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1497.jpg

All hooked up - looks the job!!

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1498.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1499.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/10/1500.jpg

All up everything including the new ebay Evaporator, hoses, and all the bits and pieces and the professional work done by Andrew at KAR AIR was about $1060. Estimate I probably put in about 20 hours myself.

How does it perform, well the best Aircon I ever had in any car was a NA Fairlane, and that used the R12 refrigerant, I have to say the Landy now is much better than that, even with the fan on low.

I parked in the sun and let the inside temp get up to 32 than started it up & turned the AC on , Fan on 2 & Temp about 65% , in five mins the interior was 15 deg. Got to be happy with that. Also absolutely no need for any ducting, but I may still add a Terrafirma roof console but wont bother ducting the A/C into it

Also I hooked the nanocom up to the ECU to monitor Idle RPM, 740, Turn on A/C the revs drop for half a second then come back & stabilise again at 740, so I wont need to add any trigger wire to tell the ECU that the A/C is on.

Oh, and the standard Condenser is well up to the job.

All up, bloody Fantastic. :D

Well Don, what can I say? Awesome effort, awesome result. :cool:

Looking even more forward to finishing mine now!

James.