23 replies to this topic

[dave21478]

hi,
Granted, the van is still in its "rusty pile of bits" stage, but Im planning ahead for future mods and aircon is high on my want-list.
Many jap imports have it as far as I know, but the chances of finding one in a scrappy with the complete system are pretty much nill.

Has anyone successfully fitted a system from another car? something more common to find in a breakers? what about aftermarket kits....are they any good? anyone had any experiences with them? what sort of price ranges are we talking here?

thanks,
Dave.

[dave21478]

or what about doing it "ghetto style" with a portable household unit in the back running off an inverter? Plenty room in the back of a van for something like that.

[tomsbluemini]

hi,
Granted, the van is still in its "rusty pile of bits" stage, but Im planning ahead for future mods and aircon is high on my want-list.
Many jap imports have it as far as I know, but the chances of finding one in a scrappy with the complete system are pretty much nill.

Has anyone successfully fitted a system from another car? something more common to find in a breakers? what about aftermarket kits....are they any good? anyone had any experiences with them? what sort of price ranges are we talking here?

thanks,
Dave.

They are retro-fittable...

In mypersonal opinion, they'd be more easily fittable to an injection engine and loom, because the jap imports are fitted with it. That meaning it's more a case of plug and play...

They do appear on fleebay from time to time, so keep an eye out for one

Tom

[biggav]

or what about doing it "ghetto style" with a portable household unit in the back running off an inverter? Plenty room in the back of a van for something like that.

You'd have trouble getting that kind of power from an inverter... plus the weight would be killer.

[*Raz*]

I find if you just take the air vents out of a mini and speed up a bit you get immediate air con

Raz xx

[asteroth]

wood and puickett do them but dont like fitting them because they are cumbersome and ugly. i just ended up buying a jap mini instead.

[Ethel]

I'm sure you could, but likely to be a lot of work. I'd look for a small car you can knick the entire heater/aircon system from. You'd need to mount and drive the compressor: perhaps a supplier of supercharger conversion kits would have some useful bits to do that?

[Aria Aradhea]

You don't necessarily need an SPi to fit an aircon. Jap-spec carb Minis all fitted with an aircon. Basically, all you need is the compressor, evaporator, condenser, blower and all the required fittings and hoses. You need to design brackets to fit the compressor and also the condenser, and that could be a pig of a job to do...

You could try to find an aircon system from another small car, but I believe it would not fit. Japanese Minis with aircon have a very tight engine bay, tighter than your usual MPi Minis. Early Carb Japanese Minis mounted the condenser in the front side of the car, in front of the brake servo. Later SPi cars have a hole in the driver's side inner wing to mount the condenser and its fan.

If you like, I could post some pictures of how Jap-spec aircon are fitted, and also our own aircon retro-fitting option commonly done in Indonesia.

[Xiao_Bin]

You don't necessarily need an SPi to fit an aircon. Jap-spec carb Minis all fitted with an aircon. Basically, all you need is the compressor, evaporator, condenser, blower and all the required fittings and hoses. You need to design brackets to fit the compressor and also the condenser, and that could be a pig of a job to do...

you will also need the refrigerant valve, and a bottle (which i forgot the exact name) that prevents liquid gas to flow back to the compressor
A belt tensioner, unless the compressor bracket is adjustable
I'm not sure if you need to change some pulley, is there more belts than on a non aircon mini? never seen one from close

plus if you have a carb, you'll need something to increase the idle speed when you on the aircon. Mine is (bodged? i dont know) fitted with a vacuum actuator + valve that simply pushes on the throttle.

After fitting all that you'll find that its really a PITA to set the timing as the pulley is hidden quite a bit behind the compressor

Edited by Xiao_Bin, 20 May 2008 - 11:23 AM.

[mab01uk]

Some pics of the 2 systems as used on Jap Minis. (A complete early system sold recently on ebay for about £700). 1. Later Condenser+fan in LH inner wing, 2. Early Condenser in front of servo, Evaporator is under passenger parcel shelf, control switches and cold air vents in centre of dashboard, compressor is under big alternator.

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Edited by mab01uk, 20 May 2008 - 06:27 PM.

[mab01uk]

If you like, I could post some pictures of how Jap-spec aircon are fitted, and also our own aircon retro-fitting option commonly done in Indonesia.

If you could post some detailed pictures on Jap-spec aircon and your own Mini aircon retro-fitting option in Indonesia that would be a great help to many of us here in the UK who are thinking about doing something similar.

[Aria Aradhea]

If you could post some detailed pictures on Jap-spec aircon and your own Mini aircon retro-fitting option in Indonesia that would be a great help to many of us here in the UK who are thinking about doing something similar.

Okay, I'll try and get some pics today....

[Aria Aradhea]

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#1. You could see the one piece cold air vents+evaporator combined in its mounting location. You could always place it right next to the heater, exactly in front of the passenger.

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#2 & #3. The condenser were place on the rear subframe, next to the exhaust. The risk of this setup is that you have to run the pipes up to the front of the car, next to the exhaust system, making it prone to leakage. The condenser itself also prone to leakage due to possible small stones / pebbles hitting it.

It's possible to mount it on the driver's side inner wing, but you have to redesign your fresh air intake ducting and make a large round hole for the condenser fan.

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#4 & #5. This car placed its compressor beneath the alternator. You could always reverse this setup to clear the path for the hoses and pipes from and to the condenser and the evaporator. You'd need two fanbelts, one for the alternator to the compressor, and the other for the compressor to the engine pulleys. As Xiao_bin said, belt tensioner are a must, as are vacuum actuator to increase idle speed if you're using carb. SPis don't need the vacuum because the ECU will control the idle speed.


The original, factory fitted (or rather: retro-fitted) Japanese spec aircon is as what mab01uk has posted.

[mab01uk]

Thanks Aria Aradhea for posting the pics, very helpful and a clever solution for fitting air con in a Mini with the condenser rad underneath the boot floor to save space, perhaps it could be protected from stones with a wire mesh or grille? Does it have an electric fan also?
I guess fitting air con is pretty essential in your climate?

[BJst416]

The were some Mini Cords here in Venezuela fitted with stock AC, as mine is.

I have a proposal if you would, I have 2 extra units complete just hanging around (and I mean complete) and I´m also currently trying to source parts for my turbo setup. As you guessed there were no metro turbos here and Venezuela just like there were no AC equiped minis in Europe.

I´d be willing to do a some sort of exchange for one of the units, you know you pay your shipping and I pay mine... I don´t know something of that sort. PM me if interested, maybe we can talk about it.