Technical 1.2 8v engine with air conditioning?

[Dragon Man]

hey guys,
i have this crazy idea of installing a new engine into my panda. theres nothing wrong with the old one but i would like more power and air conditioning.

my question is, does any of the punto mk2's come with a 1.2 8v engine with air conditioning?

i ask this as the 16v engine wont fit my gearbox, but the 1.2 8v engine does

i have asked the same question in the mk1 section too.

im not fussed about the aircon radiators as i have those already.

also electronics wont be a problem.. i am quite looking forward to that part particular.

it will be nice if it is doable, no carb, easy starting when winter comes, more power, a little more water proof electronics too, and aircon!
would be nice if it can be done.

thanks guys!

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Yes there were 8v mk2b puntos with aircon

The dynamic and the special edition chill which was a bottom end active with aircon

Your issue will come with routing pipe work you may need to get custom hoses made up, and the evaporator in the cabin and how you will marry that with a panda heater box, it can be done, it's just planning out how, if you can locate all the relevant parts and an expansion valve then you'll have your map to get any hoses made up,

You will need uprated cooling as aircon generates a lot of heat, so you need a dual fan or high speed fan set up

 

[fingers99]

There were even a few Centos with aircon -- very rare in the UK, though.

 

[Dragon Man]

thanks for the advice..
uprated fans is something i was going to do anyway. i have worked with refrigeration systems as a hobby for a while now building computer coolers and home A/C units. the one we have in our house was one i got from the scrap yard and repaired.

to me it seems like an easy job with the hardest part finding a compressor to either fit the 999cc engine or do a complete engine swap.

i would install the evaporator in the cabin air box just after the heater matrix (so the hot air blows on it if the heater is on) that way i can use it as an epic de-mister.

theres plenty of space in the cabin air box thankfully. i think it will be an easy job when i have all the bits.

i'm going to use copper pipes for all the solid parts and just use fittings to adapt things.
it will be a bit of a hacked system as i will be also using bits from other cars.

im down the scrap yard all the time so i should be able to get bits easy.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

to me it seems like an easy job with the hardest part finding a compressor to either fit the 999cc engine or do a complete engine swap.

i would install the evaporator in the cabin air box just after the heater matrix (so the hot air blows on it if the heater is on) that way i can use it as an epic de-mister.

theres plenty of space in the cabin air box thankfully. i think it will be an easy job when i have all the bits.

i'm going to use copper pipes for all the solid parts and just use fittings to adapt things.
it will be a bit of a hacked system as i will be also using bits from other cars.

im down the scrap yard all the time so i should be able to get bits easy.

Ebay for compressor. There are plenty for the 1.2 8v, I would investigate as it may be a simple case of fitting an adaptor plate to your current engine from a later model to fit the compressor

you will need flexible pipes between the compressor and the condenser and the receiver and the compressor, using copper in a largely aluminium system is not ideal you will see a galvanic reaction between the alloy and the copper, copper corrodes much quicker and if using standard plumbers copper pipe and unions, you may find they are really not up to the job of coping with the pressures of the refrigerant, this is why generally systems are all aluminium with welded joints, and use special fittings between components and pipes.
you also might not be able to get the system gassed if it looks too Heath Robinson. older cars used to have copper pipes and they weren't very good at staying gassed.

When fitting the evaporator it needs to be positioned before the heater matrix in the flow of incoming air, otherwise you will heat up the gas in the system throwing out the pressure/temperature balance between the condenser and the evaporator. The compressor will be trying to compress already heated gas, making the whole system horribly inefficient.

It would be better to do an engine change then the engine ecu can manage the idle when the compressor clutch is activated so the car doesn't stall every time you power on the air con,

I follow your videos and have no doubt you could do this, though i have installed aircon in cars including unusual setups so offering my knowledge.


other things to consider are you will need to calculate the volume of the system to get the right numbers for gas and oil.

you will need to make your own evaporator drain to stop the car filling with water (even fiat weren't very good at this)