Today guys oxygen wielded the modified parts this morning then attempted the install. Whilst fitting some o rings were changed over. One bracket was connected to the end cap fittings below the rear end of the exhaust to ensure to loose ends and vibrations. Also had to take out the old heat exchanger used many moons ago whilst running SVO near the right corner marked in green. In doing this freed up space and accessed the A/c pipe and made life easier to remove, weld a T bend and reattached whilst trying to make it look OEM.
After attaching this pipe I preceded as the opportunity rose and my hands were already blackened with grease to undo all other water coolant pipes that were used through the heat exchanger. This lead to a lot more rooms being available. The blue X marks the cancellations pipes and the red line marks the new single piece coolant lines. Thankfully I found the right bottom coolant line was in bad condition with a tear in it isolating the coolant loss thats been noticed for many months.
By the end of the day had everything completed in putting the car back together. Preceded test the A/C lines only to see the air escaping in certain places. Replaced o rings as testing continued with two small o rings to buy tomorrow morning for the bottom console pipes. Once testing is completed can get the gas reinstalled and test the a A/C and fridge finally. After this planning to add more red Toyota coolant before taking it for a test drive.
This morning guys preceded to check the coolent only to find a few leaks under pressure testing. After correcting this looked good to top up with coolent. Next was to pressure tent the A/C lines. No leak detected thankfully after changing another O ring. Next vuccummed out the air then gave it gas. Looked pretty good and gonna have to use it for the next few days for it all to settle in with especially the fridge works as it’s not been used for a long time I’m told. The first picture was the add on pipe to connect to the existing A/C line. Was happy to have it looking OEM nice & tidy. With temps above 40C here gonna get a lot of use outta the fridge I feel justifying the 4 days plus of time & labour in garage I’ve put in. Thankfully my cousins garage help assist me making it possible.
Driving back from the city today Clive gotta say how valuable this fridge is. Within 15 mins it turned my warm water bottle ice cold to drink. This coupled with it being a good size (not sure in litres yet) is proving invaluable. Looking forward to getting the ice boxes from Andy at some point to test those too. All the hard work is paying off gracefully. Thanks
Hi Dervis I'm glad to see that the fridge install has gone well. You have achieved what I intended to do but didn't get round to. In fairness we don't have the requirement for an installed fridge in the UK the vast majority of the time and I was glad to pass it on. Another thing is I don't drive an 80 on a regular basis although I still have one. Look forward to the end of the year when we will be in Cyprus again and meet up as usual hopefully with Geoff too and any others who want to come along.
I have been wanting to this mod for years!! I managed to find a fridge but it did not come with the pipes. After searching the Net I found out that tthere was a AC guy in Johnnesburg doing the conversions / installations into cruisers there and from what I understand they made some new / replacement pipes and cut into the existing system - Do you think that this would have been an option??
Hi it is possible but from my experience and research the pipes need to be A/C graded pipes much like the existing lines already in the vehicle. If you saw the laid out piping picture shown here you would see there was quite a lot to plumb in. If you need a more help P.M me and I'll do my best to help you along. Thanks