Factory Air Conditioning Kit Vs. Aftermarket Air Conditioning Kit.....

[Bulldog Z]

I am sorry, I know I am adding yet another A/C thread. I did a search on the topic, but I need additional advice. I would like to add A/C to my 73 240Z. I am leaning more towards the "factory" kit because it is made for the car. Courtesey nissan no longer has the factory kits available. Has anyone had any experience with the classic or vintage air kits. I know I need to go with a modern Sanden type compressor. I have also read that the Honda blower motor is a good upgrade for increased air flow. Does anyone have any thoughts or guidence?

[SteveJ]

I'm not sure what you mean by a "factory" kit since there was never factory air for the 73. I'm not sure what you've read here, either, since there are threads that talk about what you're asking with regards to Vintage Air.

As far as the Honda blower what questions do you have that haven't been answered in the long thread?

[Arne]

MSA sells the same kit that Courtesy sold. Their web site says the manufacturer is moving their plant and they hope to begin filling orders again in March 2011. Might be worth a call.

[Bulldog Z]

Well, first of all, I put factory in quotes because I know 240Z's never came with factory air conditioning. 240's had a dealer add on air conditioning option and my car had this option at one time. Unfortunately, my AC has long since been removed. I know the dealer add on kit is rather feeble and is not nearly as effective as a modern unit. I feel like you are eluding that I shouldn't have written this thread because I should have found my information from the previous threads. I would just like to know which unit is better a dealer add on unit or an aftermarket unit. I am sure there will be many installation isuues with an aftermarket kit that I am trying to avoid. As far as the blower is concerned, some members say the Honda blower is better for air flow and other members say it is not. Again, I would just like some additional answers about the blower motor replacement. I am sorry if I sound trite, but I do not like to be chided for trying to gain information on a frequently discussed topic.

[Bulldog Z]

Thank you Arne for your reply. I will monitor MSA. I am sorry if I sounded like a jerk in my reply to stevej but I don't like treated like I am in idiot just because I bring up a well covered topic.

[Arne]

Well, something to consider is the fact that ALL A/C kits for 240Zs are aftermarket. The "dealer installed" kits were aftermarket, and not all dealers used the same kits. Some used ARA, some Frigiking, some....

As a guess, the modern aftermarket kits (such as previously sold by MSA and Courtesy) are very similar to those used years ago by the dealers, with the obviously improved modern compressor. Other than that, much the same as what was originally installed in your car years ago. I would not expect the cooling to be much different than the '70s versions, although the rotary compressor will be smoother and perhaps have a bit less drag on the engine.

Custom setups (such as Vintage Air) will be more work to install, and may require a custom heater box and controls, but are probably far more effective.

[Bulldog Z]

That's what I was thinking too Arne. I think I will go with the MSA kit for the ease of installation and the similarity to the 70's unit. The 240Z is fairly small, so the unit should cool decently. Hopefully the MSA unit will stand up to the brutal south GA summers which can tax even the most robust automotive AC systems.

[SteveJ]

Brad, feel free to remove the chip from your shoulder. You asked some vague questions that require some clarification to give meaningful answers.

The key to your cooling will be how much air you can get through the evaporator and out through the registers. Carl Beck posted his experiences getting adequate A/C in Florida. Search the word evaporator. Also, I got a lot out of the book "How to Air Condition Your Car". If you want to read that book, buy a used copy. Amazon lists it for $50 new. It's not worth that much. There is another A/C book for hot rods listed for about $20. That would be much more reasonable.

[sblake01]

Since you speak of 'brutal summers', I doubt that you'd really ever be happy with either the 70s aftermarket type of system or the MSA system, which is pretty much the same thing, as Arne pointed out. The drawback of those systems has to do with where the evaporator is mounted, in the passenger footwell. A system, like the Vintage Air system, is based on a center mounted evaporator like most factory installed systems and provide far more efficient cooling because of the shorter path of air travel. They don't have to pull the cooled air through the system to the center and then force it back through the vents.

Edited April 26, 2011 by sblake01

[Pop's Z]

FWIW, I installed an hvac system from Hot Rod Air: www.hotrodair.com. into my '73. I found them to be great to deal with and they were able to help me over a couple of rough spots. The kit came with a bracket that mounted the compressor on the driver's side of the engine. It was not a job for the mechanically inexperienced, but if you work on your own car it was fairly straight forward. The system works well here in Colorado. (This is where Darrel will chime in with "when are you going to finish the how-to write-up"). The old-style systems will NOT keep up with Georgia heat and humidity, so if you want to be cool you will have to go with either Vintage Air or Hot Rod Air. The install took me about a month of off-and-on work. It could be knocked out faster if you were to work on it full time. You will have to remove the seats, the console, the dash and the original heater assembly. The evaporator is approximately the same size as the original heater unit. Good luck.

Cheers, Mike

[Powderkeg]

Bulldog,

Type in "Datsun vintage air" into yahoo and you'll get a write-up about installing a vintage air system into a 77 280Z. It's written by "Xenon"who contributes to this site and has a lot of helpful links.

I know it's it not for a 240Z but it may help you out.

Dave Ruiz

[Duffman]

Unfortunately, Hot Rod Air is out of business, so Vintage Air is a good choice for an aftermarket system that can handle the heat!