So I finally, finally have completed this project. My winter beater truck had slave cylinder destruction on the m5od which sped up the whole process as I'm just parting that truck out at this point and my minty clean F150 now has AC.
Swapping the hvac boxes was not the worst thing in the world except for two bolts. Once you get that mess out and the stuff from the inside of the dash out you would think you are home free, but getting the evaporator to go back in the ac box is infuriating. It has no clearance. If I could do this again, I would put the evaporator in the plastic box and bolt it all up outside the truck and then try and shove the whole thing against the firewall, but then its so heavy so it's hard to get it mounted to the firewall.
Also my doner truck was made in canada and my good truck is not so of course all 4 bolt holes for the ac compressor were different threads and slightly different bolt widths so that took forever.
Once I got it mounted up, I pulled a vacuum and went to put the serpentine belt back on from the truck that had ac and wouldn't you know it it doesn't fit and is too short. I guess the crank or water pump pulley is slightly bigger and a 99" belt was too short. I went and got a 100.5" belt and that works.. I think a 100" would be perfect but finally I fired it up and it works perfect! I have a toggle switch in the cab to send power to the low pressure switch and used the factory wiring that was there from then on so it can control pressure and use the resistor in the plug for the compressor.
Everything works so well, it is probably the happiest I've been with a massive project like this I've done on any of my trucks short of fixing my 6.9 up.
If anyone ever needs to add ac on a brick and your worried about it not being possible, IDI or not you can for sure get it done if I was able to do this by myself. Just get parts from a doner vehicle and take your time.
Swapping the hvac boxes was not the worst thing in the world except for two bolts. Once you get that mess out and the stuff from the inside of the dash out you would think you are home free, but getting the evaporator to go back in the ac box is infuriating. It has no clearance. If I could do this again, I would put the evaporator in the plastic box and bolt it all up outside the truck and then try and shove the whole thing against the firewall, but then its so heavy so it's hard to get it mounted to the firewall.
Also my doner truck was made in canada and my good truck is not so of course all 4 bolt holes for the ac compressor were different threads and slightly different bolt widths so that took forever.
Once I got it mounted up, I pulled a vacuum and went to put the serpentine belt back on from the truck that had ac and wouldn't you know it it doesn't fit and is too short. I guess the crank or water pump pulley is slightly bigger and a 99" belt was too short. I went and got a 100.5" belt and that works.. I think a 100" would be perfect but finally I fired it up and it works perfect! I have a toggle switch in the cab to send power to the low pressure switch and used the factory wiring that was there from then on so it can control pressure and use the resistor in the plug for the compressor.
Everything works so well, it is probably the happiest I've been with a massive project like this I've done on any of my trucks short of fixing my 6.9 up.
If anyone ever needs to add ac on a brick and your worried about it not being possible, IDI or not you can for sure get it done if I was able to do this by myself. Just get parts from a doner vehicle and take your time.
