I have a f150 with the 5.4.........and with air conditioning. What would be any downfall or harmful side effect to bypassing the AC compressor on the motor by using a shorter belt??. On the 5.4's it is at the bottom left side of the motor so it doesn't seem like it would be hard to bypass at all. I know i am not going to do it right now but was thinking about doing this when winter comes around or while i am at the dragstrip. There has to be some power to be gained from having to turn one less accessory. Would any damage be caused from it not turning over a period of say 4 months?? Any input or thoughts are greatly appreciated.

justin

 

Justin,
I would not remove the belt.

1) Parasitic HP with the AC (and defrost) off, is only the HP required to spin the bearing that supplrts the AC clutch. How much is that? I can only venture a guess of 1/4hp?

2) In the winter, defrost works by using both elements of your trucks HVAC: Heat and AC. To defrost the outer windsheild, you need heat. To defog the inside, you need dry air. By mixing the heat with the AC, you get both.

3) By idling (not spinning) the AC clutch bearing, the seals could harden, thereby allowing condensation inside the bearing, rusting and seizeing over time.

4) If you are looking for more HP at one given time, just turn the AC to OFF!

I've trailered a '70 couger (~12kip GCW i.e. limit of truck) from 'Vegas to Phoenix, and never felt the need for more power. Maybe more trans cooling, but that's a separate problem that I solved a few years ago.

Hope this helps.
Tony

 

I don't think you would gain much by bypassing it plus everyting F150Tony said will happen if you bypassed it.

 

I was figuring that damage could and probably would happen to the compressor without it working BUT it almost has to free up some hp. Many of the streetable truck and cars that are built for speed don't even put the compressor on the motor. Its real typical around this area with the older mustangs(80's-early 90's). And i believe there is a member or two on here that has them off. It seems that the less accesories (in use or not) that have to be turned is worth some extra HP. Maybe i am wrong
though. And as for turing off the AC... i do at times.

Thanks for the reply but has anyone else have a idfferent idea?

 

I have the same opinion. The HP (hamster power) gain would be immeasureably low. The belt is turning a pulley that rides on a smooth bearing with little friction. With the belt off, you can readily spin the pulley with your hand. It is not worth the expense of getting a shorter belt, and when you do need A/C...you're SOL.

 

Sweaty arm pits! LOL! JK. If you get a chip, it will turn off a/c when at full throttle if the computer doesnt allready

 

justin, it would be a lot of trouble, i have allready tried this, ordered the belt and all, in order to do this you have to get another idler pulley because the idler on the truck is facing the wrong direction, i mean, the direction it stretches the belt. its impossible to do without redoing the idler......

 

Talk to Neal, I think his is bypassed.

 

I thought Neal was one of the ones who had it done and was hoping i would hear from him to this post. So if you do read this Neal, how much does it help?

thanks
justin

 

in addition if you don't run your a/c compressor at least once a month (12 months a year) you risk premature failure due to not keeping the internals lubricated.

however I am sure that it wouldn't hurt if you are doing it for drag runs and such.

I believe in the old days like on the afformentioned old mustangs there was a lot more drag produced from a NON-running a/c compressor so that is why you see so many disconnected Also in the past they just went bad a lot!!

Newer modern a/c compressors cause little to no drag at all as stated above.

I think the only real HP gain would come from weight loss if you removed the entire a/c system!!

 

I think NEAL just yanked out the entire AC system.........

If you haven't already, swapping to an electric fan setup will free up some of that HP you are looking for (~10-15hp by what I've heard).

 

I did this in my old TransAm. Didn't notice any increase in power at all, and a year later when I decided to put the belt back on because it was getting hot, the compressor wouldn't blow cold air. I had to have the whole AC system charged and had new freon put in... I was told if I had left it off for a lot longer I would have risked ruing all the seals in the compressor which would have been a pretty expensive repair. In retrospect, in that it didn't even add any noticeable power, I wouldn't even consider doing that again...