a Superior Journey!

[Booyah45828]

Cool deal. Give him a thumbs up for me.

Agreed on the clutch fan part. It's nice to not worry about a failed clutch causing an overheat, but the jet engine noise all the time gets old quick.

It's borderline a growl over a whine, normal noise accelerating, but clearly louder in coast. Probably pinion bearings as when I replaced the seal a few years back the pinion had some play in it, tightened it to spec with the new seal and the play went away. Nut was cotter pinned so the play came from somewhere vs the nut backing off. Might be a good excuse to get better highway gears.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Booyah45828

Cool deal. Give him a thumbs up for me.

Agreed on the clutch fan part. It's nice to not worry about a failed clutch causing an overheat, but the jet engine noise all the time gets old quick.

It's borderline a growl over a whine, normal noise accelerating, but clearly louder in coast. Probably pinion bearings as when I replaced the seal a few years back the pinion had some play in it, tightened it to spec with the new seal and the play went away. Nut was cotter pinned so the play came from somewhere vs the nut backing off. Might be a good excuse to get better highway gears.

thats exactly what happened to this one.. my pinion gear Nuked.. presumably because the bearing went out and caused bad gear mesh.. when I took it apart I found broken gear and really sloppy inner bearing.. it started growling then got really RAGGED ratchety sounding.. I know I bearely made it back home! sucked since that same fluid lubes the wheel bearings i had to flush everything out.. the new 4.78 gears are perfect for the gasoline engine.. at 65 with the AT540 it fluctuates between 2500-2800 RPM which is pretty much in the sweet spot of that 392.. driving at 55-60 you are feathering the pedal on flat ground..

[magnakansas]

I first saw this on a Mercedes, but I am sure it has been done with other brands. They had a fuel cooler on the low pressure side of the air conditioning system.

Chris, Would this kind of thing be worthwhile in the kind of weather you have your AC system on?

William

[cadillackid]

this is something ive wondered about.. in the racing world we used to have a canister with ice water in it to chill the fuel on hot days.. of course for a drag race it doesnt need to last very long.. just long enough to make it through staging and the run.. typically they get you to the line pretty quick so you dont get the engine hot.. (I always ran street cars with full cooling.. but many guys ran foam filled blocks so you dont have much time)...


I do plan to A/C the driver area of the Superior.. so this could be something to do.. in fact heat exchangers are already made .. the new-car 1234yf systems utilize a liquid-line to suction-line heat exchanger.. rather than waste the "cold pipe" under the hood they take extra heat off that the condenser didnt get.. it ensdures you have a better column of liquid at the TxV..



the same type of exchanger could easily have fuel running through the center of it and cold freon on the outside..

or I could just run a couple coils of aluminum or copper suction line into an insulated can full of coolant, where the steel fuel line would coil through as well.


the racing Ice-bucket approach prob wouldnt do well for a trip vehicle..


in my opinion the E10 fuels are a big part of the issue.. by nature the ethanol is going to lower the temperature at which we get vapor.. and in a carb application the pressures are just too low to keep the hot fuel liquid sometimes.

[Booyah45828]

IIRC yours was an ra39 too.......

Fuel boiling could happen. Old days they would cover hard lines with insulation wrap. You could try a phenolic carb spacer too. Some factory diesels use fuel coolers in front of the radiator. Now I don't like the idea of you running a gas filled one up front, but maybe somewhere less damage prone might work.

They make alloy fuel logs that are finned that might work out too.

I assume you have a dead head style fuel system, maybe converting it to a bypass type system would help you too.

[cadillackid]

thats exactly what mine is, rockwell RA39.. it got $$$ but I just took my whole chunk to weller and had it Remanned .. since I needed a ring and pinion.. and of course bearings it made sense to just go that route vs source parts and build it in my garage or find out I need a press i dont have.. I mightve saved a couple hundred bucks that way unless i needed a machine shop then id be right back up there so i went the easy route..



my fuel system is indeed dead-head.. really it looks a lot like a small block chevy.. cam-gear fuel pump on the lower passenger side sucks fuel from the tank and pushes it up to the carb at low pressure.. so theres lot of chance for fuel to go slow in the lines.. of course the fuel lines are in the direct path of the hot air from the fan... I did insulate the hard metal line but havent tried insulating the steel braided section..

phenolic spacer is definitely on the list.. my carb currently has a metal 1/2" spacer of some sort.. so I got a 1 inch phenolic to put on, as well as the shield plate to help keep radiant heat off of the bowl.. since starting isnt an issue (always starts right up).. i dont think the bowl heat is an issue but the shield cant hurt.. technically a carb at idle should be cooling under vacuum and the fuel atomization.. but we all know technical and reality dont always match up

[cadillackid]

Yeppers I still have this bus and its running absolutely beautiful with its aftermarket distributor in it instead of the old points thingy.. Ive had it on a few trips and it loves to cruise at 65 on flat ground..







my latest project is Adding Dash Air-Conditioning to it..



I realize that dash A/C wont begin to cool the bus, hopwever it will make more comfortabkle for me to enjoy driving it in summer which is when I drive this bus.. it doesnt go out at all in winter salt..


I found a Vintage-Looking High capacity (30,000 BTU) Underdash or ceiling mount unit.. this has 2 motors and 4 blower wheels.. it looks very similar to the style of vents used on Loadstars and scouts on the late 70s so it fits right in.. ill have to move my allison shifter but thats pretty easy..



im using a york 210 compressor which is vintage for IH.. they used the same compressor on these gas engines.. ill have to modify the mount a bit to spin it.. the 3rd belt groove is designed for A/C but thats my air-brakes.. so I got a dual-groove close in clutch and will drive the A/C off of the 2 alternator belts along with the alternator.. I should still have enough pulley grab to spin the alternator.. but if it doesnt mock up good ill install a back-side idler (yes you can do that on V-belts) and get some more grab on the alternator..



other way to do it is to just use 1 belt on the alt as is and repurpose the 2nd for the A/C.. there appears to be clearance to do that..




condensor-wise im hiding an ACT CS-2 condensor underneath.. this condensor is over-kill for what im doing, however you lose some capacity by running them under-body vs skirt mount as they tend to take in somewhat warmer air.. my evap is 30,000 BTU, condensor is rated at 60,000 so the loss in capacity wont hurt me at all..



Linesets are Burgaflex fittings with Galaxy 4890 reduced diameter barrier hose..


on hot days ill hang a clear shower curtain up behind the driver seat so the unit just has to cool the cab.. should work good.. I test ran the fans on the dash unit and they move a LOT of air.. I may turn the TxV up if i have extra capacity in the compressor.. will see once I get it mounted up and charged with freon..


I'll run the ES-134a replacement freon which is wicked cold..





More to come!
-Christopher