another problem is that the flapper actually works sometimes. there are times my trucks A/C blow so cold I'm quoting Vanilla Ice...Ice Ice Baby

and other times the fan is blowing full out and the temp is tepid at best.

 

One thing to note:

Most of the valves made for cutting off the flow to the heater core are specifically designed NOT to seal completely. Therefore eliminating the corrosion problem when the flow is extremely restricted.

Some will have a small hole in the face like the one in your thermostat on the 2" line. Others will have a small bypass cast into the housing. I found this out many years ago when I tried to use one of them as a drain control valve for another project and couldn't get it to seal.

 

Which valves are you referring to,ones like 1/4 turn ball valves or the type auto engineers design for the hoses?

 

The ones made for the vehicles. They will work fine from one vehicle to another as long as you have the correct hose sizes and vaccume / electric activation. I grew up in a salvage yard and we were constantly pulling them off the older pickups to put in the loaders. The vibration in the big equipment was murder on the brass fittings. I put one on my old 65 ford van, the one with the dog house between the front seats, so I wouldn't get cooked out in the summer.

Also, there isn't much difference between inlet and outlet except for hose routing on the heater core. It's an old fix for a heater core that's not putting out much heat to reverse the hoses to flush out the buildup in the ends of the heater core tubes. Drove to work one winter in the old van having to scrape the inside of the windshield to see out. Once it cooled down went out on break and swapped hoses. Had to crack the windows to cool off on the way home that evening.

 

Just wanted to let everyone know that i tried this and it seems to be working. We have not had any 100+ degree days but on 90 degree humid days i can get it down to 38 degrees out of the vent. I used to get 49 at best. I have been driving around with a calibrated thermometer in the vent for about 2 weeks and so far im seeing and feeling the difference. I actually have to turn it down now. I will post again when we get a hot day. Hope this helps

 

This mod certainly has me interested. I have no gripes with my new '08 XLT and how cool it gets as I'm cruising down the road but I'm going to throw in my thoughts on the results and testing methods that are being used.

I'm noticing that you guys (or gals) are using recirc, fan on high. Here is a thought...if you step the fan speed down one setting (to the #3 position) then the air will have a little more resonance time in the evaporator and subsequently be cooler out of the vents. Additionally if you go down to the #2 or #1 position you should expect to see progressively cooler readings at the vent.

Running on recirc, high fan is fine but what do you really use as your everyday setting? Personally I run in fresh mode at #3 fan setting. Only when the truck is really hot do I go to recirc/high. I suggest evaluating how you like/dislike the mod with the setting you usually use in "real life". However, we do need to see results from a consistent test procedure.

More to think about...setting the fan to recirc/high after soaking in the sun for hours and hours (such as a typical work day) the interior temps are certainly going to get to 160 or 170 F near the headliner. If you drop the windows and run fresh/#3 fan speed (just for 1/4 or 1/2 mile) then you should be able to flush the HOT air out and start cooling the entire thermal mass of the cabin. Once you start to feel some relief you can put up the windows and run whatever setting you feel comfortable with.

These are just my thoughts from when I was a climate control/cooling engineer in another life. I absolutely NO WAY am I detracting from the original idea. I'm commending all of the hard work, discussion thoughts, and effort that has gone into this thread. It has certainly been interesting to see what everyone is doing.

One more thing...how about drilling a small (say 1/8") hole through the center of the ball in the ball valve for bleed flow? Then you don't have to worry about core rot.

 

I had problems with my ac even getting cold at all when first starting uppppp... I took it into the dealer and they replaced the clutch as well and also refreshed it with new freon and it blows colder then ever. Anyone that is having ac problems Id recommend taking it in and have them test everything out.

 

Just measured my air vents with e-fans installed and I got 30 degrees. And that is sitting idle. E-fans is the best way to get the A/C to perform really well. Especially at idle.

 

Whatever tough guy.

 

Installed the 3/4" ball valve in the heater core hose, and charged the system to 45 psi. I am now getting 35 degrees at idle and 41 at 2000 rpm. Very satified.

 

This is what I liked about the system Dodge uses in the Ram. They have a belt driven fan to cool the engine, while the A/C condenser is mounted off to the side with it's own E-fan. My friends '06 Ram feels like a freezer inside after about 10 minutes of running the system. E-fans are definitely the way to go.

Ford could dramatically improve the cooling by moving the condenser away from the radiator. This would stop it from picking up heat from the engine while allowing it to properly give up the heat it picks up from the interior of the vehicle. Of course, stopping coolant flow through the heater core when the A/C is on would help too.

 

Wow... Ive been away for a while at look what I started...

anyways I have had valve installed now for a couple months... everything is working fine still... it still make about a 10 degree difference at my vents...

a few new things to note though...

I recently was changing out my power steering pump .. so while I had truck apart I swapped out my Fan clutch with a new one from napa...

for the first time since Ive owned the truck I can now hear the FAN run ... and by FAN I mean the big radiator fan that blows air though the radiator...

so mine was definitely defective... but it hasnt made any major change in my A/C vent temps....

also I always felt that the airflow coming out of Vents in this truck just plain sucks...

I have on 04 Supercab.. its grey.. and I have the darkest LEGAL tint on windows..

so I started to inspect the duct work ... on the passenger side of truck on the center console I snapped off the side access to the center consule... and found that the duct work was laying on the floor... it simply fell apart and I had alot of the cold air just blowing underneath the console area below my shifter... WTF???

so since I dont give a @@@@ about the backseat passengers... I simply taped off the entire rear duct.. again from passenger side of console... you can snap off the side panel to look inside the console area..... since the ductwork is so incredible cheap and poorly contructed.. I just taped it off ...so now no air blow to the little vents for the back seat...and now I get about 40% more air flow to the front vents where I need it...
Even with this new mod... the air flow really sucks compared to any other vehicle Ive been in... I still have to have the fan on max at all times to keep this cab cooled... no matter how long the drive is...... ( i am talking hot summer phoenix days here ) 105 + temps...
my wifes mustang vents blow 10 more air than this truck... so does my regular cab 2000F150 work truck...... after about 10 mins in my 2000 F150 I have to put fan on lowest setting or I get so cold I ACHE,,, my 2004 STAYs on high speed aways and I sweat..

anyways here is the valve style that I switched to... its made by Red DOT..

as I mentioned my buddy is an A/C tech and uses these on CATS... but RED DOT makes just about anything you would need for A/C

here is there catalog...

the valve I used is on page 7...I think... its a PDF.. it the 72R5600

http://www.rdac.com/Pages/catalog/Ecat/Ecat/72.pdf


ALSO ... to everyone whos A/C is working fine .. Im real happy for you...

but mine sucks.... even with mods its barely decent...

i had it to the dealer ( what a JOKE ).. while it was under warranty... several times..
always got the run around that is was fine...

so I took over and did this stuff my self...
vacummed out all freon.. .left on vacumm for 6 hours .. to rule out any leaks.. NONE

filled freon to factory spec on the sticker on top of radiator.. used all digital SNAPON scales

A/c still blew warm... added an ounce of freon over specs at a time.. and test drove with digital temp gage .. and kept adding 1 ounce at a time and test drove...until temp got to lowest it would go..
and then backed off an ounce

final result was about 50 degree air from vents using about 14 ounces more freon than sticker specs... .. it was about 110degrees outside that day..

then added valve mod... and it dropped to about 40 degree air...

 

Your A/C is severly overcharged. A pound extra on a system in a house is no big deal but on a little *** system in a vehicle it's huge.

You're gonna be backing up liquid and probably dropping the compressor off on high pressure.

Also most Evaps look for a 20 degree approach temp. Meaning at 40 degree air temp coming out of your vents you'll be freezing up the evap because it's at 20 degrees (or thereabouts). Could be why you don't feel enough airflow.

I'm browsing this site for the time being but when I become an owner (next couple weeks) I'll start looking into some of the potential issues I was just talking about.

Like one of the other guys said not trying to sound like a **** or take away from your work. I NEED a good working A/C system and in my 03 150 it's amazing so I'm pretty bummed to be reading all of this.

 

I have a question, Do the hoses fit tight on that valve, I measured the diameter of the barb and got 5/8 inch. not 3/4 like it says on the valve. I measure the tube on the housing on top of the engine and measured a 3/4 inch diameter pipe. Am I going crazy....??? By the way I am talking about the valves from HD and Lowes....

 

I noticed the same thing a few months back when I attempted this mod. I went to Lowes and got a 3/4" ball valve. But when I went to install it, I discovered that it didn't fit the hose tight enough. I did a little researcch, and found that most ball valves in the stores are now PEX fittings. For some reason, PEX sizing is different than standard sizes. They're smaller... Anyway, I decided not to do it because it didn't fit right.