Puma air con -> County/Defender

[Judo]

I have sat here pondering for long enough....

It looks like the Puma has a combined evaporator/heater box that sits under the dash.... Could it be retro fit into an older vehicle if I was willing to butcher the dash enough?

Is the dimensions of the Puma interior the same? I.E. Same shallow space from firewall back to passengers? This is obviously the main issue with retro-fitting a new evaporator into a County/Defender, thus wondering about the Puma one...

From below, I understand I would still need to fit a blower somewhere as well (Eg. engine bay).

Lastly, price and availability could be an issue.... but that's another story I guess.

Below is stolen from another thread (thanks TimNZ).



1 Air inlet duct
2 Air intake and blower assembly
3 Heater assembly and controls
4 A/C (air conditioning) thermostatic switch
5 Water valve and bracket assembly
6 A/C (air conditioning) refrigerant pressure switch
7 A/C (air conditioning) evaporator
8 A/C (air conditioning) thermostatic expansion valve
9 A/C (air conditioning) receiver drier
10 A/C (air conditioning) condenser assembly
11 A/C (air conditioning) compressor

(This is for a LHD car, but the idea is the same).

[Gerokent]

"Could it be retro fit into an older vehicle if I was willing to butcher the dash enough?"



I think you answered you own question right there
Gotta have a project hey?

[rangieman]

= No more windscreen vents do you realy want to get rid of them for a bling dash and maybe a slightly better heater and ac . Oh speedo would need a smart signal sender thing on the gearbox i guess.
Personaly i would,nt if you want a Ac that works do as others have fit a after market unit that will out do the puma and county/defender set up
Just my 2 bobs worth

[steveG]

I'd also thought briefly about the Puma A/C, but more from the perspective of having rear facing vents on the dash rather than fitting the whole unit.

My thought was whether it was practical to have a aftermarket center mounted unit ie between the front seats under a modified cubby box, and duct forward across the transmission tunnel to nice dash vents. I realise its a bit of custom dash/duct work, but a lot of county dashes are pretty stuffed anyway.

Steve

[Judo]

My windscreen vents don't open now and although the idea greatly appealed to me originally, I think now they would not get used that much.

I've read all the big air con upgrade threads I can find on here and all the "good" ones involve the roof in some way. I'm just not sold on it.

My dash is quite frankly a shambles anyway, so although the amount of custom work would be significant, I'm keeping it as a viable option.

With what I currently know, the options that remain for me are:

1. Mulgo Exbox or similar, move all fuses and wiring to there, and redesign dash to incorporate air con and heater.
Blower motor most likely in the engine bay with fresh air intake. A/C and heater hoses don't have far to travel and can be routed through firewall out of sight in the cabin. This is basically the Puma system.

2. Even if I have to re-wire things, leave all fuses and wiring in dash and turn cubby box into air con heater.
Blower motor possibly incorporated into complete unit, which means no fresh air without pipe-work from engine bay? How big do air ducts need to be? I'm thinking quite large...
If the blower is in the engine bay, then across trans tunnel I'm looking at 2xair duct, heater hoses and A/C hoses.

[steveG]

My windscreen vents don't open now and although the idea greatly appealed to me originally, I think now they would not get used that much.

I've read all the big air con upgrade threads I can find on here and all the "good" ones involve the roof in some way. I'm just not sold on it.

My dash is quite frankly a shambles anyway, so although the amount of custom work would be significant, I'm keeping it as a viable option.

With what I currently know, the options that remain for me are:

1. Mulgo Exbox or similar, move all fuses and wiring to there, and redesign dash to incorporate air con and heater.
Blower motor most likely in the engine bay with fresh air intake. A/C and heater hoses don't have far to travel and can be routed through firewall out of sight in the cabin. This is basically the Puma system.

2. Even if I have to re-wire things, leave all fuses and wiring in dash and turn cubby box into air con heater.
Blower motor possibly incorporated into complete unit, which means no fresh air without pipe-work from engine bay? How big do air ducts need to be? I'm thinking quite large...
If the blower is in the engine bay, then across trans tunnel I'm looking at 2xair duct, heater hoses and A/C hoses.

The rear installs that Goingbush et al did don't have ducted fresh air, and IMO its not required for a shoebox full of holes (aka County/Defender).
I reckon the least amount of work would be cubby box unit (only needs power and hoses to compressor run under the seatbox/floor) and ducts across tunnel to front diffusers if you wanted, defender heater to comply with demisting requirement, and fresh air via front flaps.

I've done a couple of month-long trips and find the flaps great when offroad and you have to camp in the same temp (ie no point living in 20deg A/C during the day when you have to sleep in 30's at night), but transiting down the highway for hours on end it would be nice to be able to shut the windows/vents to keep the noise down and turn on the aircon to reduce fatigue.

Steve

[flagg]

I thought about this too, and TBH have not really ruled it out long term. IMO the only way to do it would be to replace the whole dash, AC and potentially even the firewall (esp if yours is rusty). You may have to modify your gearstick if you could have clearance problems.

If you just want more A/C you could remove the cubby box - there is a good 5 inches of clearance under it - and add an other evaporator there with a smaller cubby box build above it.

But the unit I have in the back is the least work and money for the most cooling, that I have found. The only roof mods are only 4 holes for bolts (and they don't even leak).

[Judo]

Came across this pic, which shows the air con heater matrix. It's mounted lower than I had imagined. TBH based on this, I don't think it would fit into a County. It appears the Puma gear stick is back further than a LT85 and perhaps the centre console is back further as well? Even if I completed moved/removed the fuse box, I suspect the Puma air con/heater matrix would not fit based on this pic.

[Alex]

Had looked at doing this when I had a wrecked Puma in the backyard (into a county as well). After measuring, would definitely foul gear stick.

Changing to a r380 / disco 1 shifter would give you enough room though.