Automotive Air Conditioning Information Forum

Hello,

I am trying to find information on how to design an AC system for my car. Im concerned with line size, line material and insulation, system oil capacity, Freon charge capacity, condenser sizing and evaporator sizing. I saw there was a thread that seems like it would help me learn this information but it seems to be a dead link:
AC system design from scratch (by NickD)
messageview.cfm?catid=2&threadid=16391

Can anyone recommend me a book/books on the subject? I dont need someone to design a system for me if I can learn how the design works and Id rather not be a bother to everyone asking a million questions.

Thanks!

All the old .cfm posts are gone. I have the files but will not try to bring them back. It happens every time we do a board update. So it's time to move on without them.

Iceman has a good book but can't remember the name of it.

Tim wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 8:58 am All the old .cfm posts are gone. I have the files but will not try to bring them back. It happens every time we do a board update. So it's time to move on without them.

Iceman has a good book but can't remember the name of it.

Damn that bites, I googled iceman AC book and didnt really find much...

darkipod wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 5:46 pm

Tim wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 8:58 am All the old .cfm posts are gone. I have the files but will not try to bring them back. It happens every time we do a board update. So it's time to move on without them.

Iceman has a good book but can't remember the name of it.

Damn that bites, I googled iceman AC book and didnt really find much...

I spent enough over 20 plus years helping out. Lucky if I even keep it running much longer. Google Auto Ac repair books. There are a lot of options.

Tim wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 5:52 pm I spent enough over 20 plus years helping out. Lucky if I even keep it running much longer. Google Auto Ac repair books. There are a lot of options.

If I was simply looking to repair something, that would be fine. However none of the documentation I have ever seen talks about WHY things are what they are.
Why the line size is what it is, the materials, the dryer size, orifice tube choices, the routing of lines, I do electronics repair for a living. I can find books on that all day long that go much much beyond the theory and which discuss that actual reason a component is choses and its characteristics. This information is essential to being able to design a system for your purpose from COTS parts.

The only thing I have ever seen when googling this information for AutoAC is an explanation on how the theory of operation works, and then a chart for manufacturer specific vehicle specs (oil capacity, Freon charge). This seems to be the only website on the internet that talks about these types of things. Would a donation of $200 help keeps things up and running? Would you be willing to let someone else take over the website and operation? I would like to host the archives as well since a lot of the design for r134a seems to have been discussed in the past.

Also, I do not intent to upset you, apologizes if I have.

The site's moving on from the old .cfm posts. There is enough in the PHPBB database to make that move.

Tim wrote: ↑Sat Apr 06, 2024 9:24 am The site's moving on from the old .cfm posts. There is enough in the PHPBB database to make that move.

Yes of course, you made that clear. Im sorry if there is some confusion, im not asking you to revive those posts, and indeed I dont expect you to help me, I was hoping there might be others in the forum who may have materials that would help me in understanding AC System design, not theory of operation. I have repaired many many car AC systems simply from manufacturer specs. But if I am trying to design a bespoke system for an engine swap I am trying to make sure I get the desired performance and do not trash components along the way while trying to learn what does and does not work when mixing and matching AC components.

Possible good news for some lost links. I was looking for some links referred to in more recent posts and two of them didn't work. They were both .cfm posts. I have been aware of and used the internet archive (also known as the Wayback Machine) for some old sites that were no longer available. Just google and you will find it.

One of the two links was indeed archived (Saved 9 times between December 12, 2010 and June 6, 2023, complete with pictures) hurray! The other one turned up a message "The Wayback Machine has not archived that URL. This page is unavailable for archiving. The server returned code: because page does not exist"

I suggest using Google advanced search to find posts of interest, and if the URL contains .cfm, check out the Wayback Machine. You might be in luck.