I was wondering if any of you have experienced this with your trucks. I have a 95 F150 4.9 w/automatic & my father has a 95 F250 4.9 w/automatic. Both of our trucks have a big loss in power and acceleration when driving with the A/C on! When the A/C is off the engine runs great. My father just had his entire A/C system rebuilt including the compressor. He still is having a loss of power when the A/C is on.

Now, my question is this. Does this sound like an actual problem or did these trucks come from the factory like this? In other words is the loss in power normal when the A/C is running? Whether we have a problem or the power loss is normal is there any way to fix this.

Both my father and I live in Louisiana where it is hot so we run our A/C a lot! On my fathers end he really feels the loss in power b/c he pulls an 18ft trailer everyday.

Any help or suggestions would be great!!!

Thanks,
Ben

 

Thats pretty much normal, i used to notice it in my truck when driving on hilly roads. The a/c compressor can suck about 20 horsepower off the front of your engine, the 4.9L is torquey but only makes something like 160 horsepower so that 20 hp is quite a significant loss. It might help to install underdrive pullys which would reduce the speed the compressor spins at, thus reducing the amount of parasitic loss from the a/c and other accessories. Or you might want to look into some other performance parts (exhaust, cold air intake) that will boost your power and towing capability without sacrificing fuel milage or reliability.

-Jon