Crosswind air gap clone and ram truck serpentine setup
Hey everyone, today, I finally messed around with my serpentine ac bracket and an extra LA 318 that I have. I came up with a few potential solutions to enable the use of A/C with a crosswind style intake. Now first, let me just say, I’ve only eyeballed this and haven’t starting doing any actual mods.
Ok, first off, both options are going to require cutting off that one corner of the bracket that interferes with the t-stat housing. In option 1, cut the corner (red line in pic 2) then add material (aluminum weld or jb weld) to the “groove” beside that bolt hole, then drill and tap that. (Yellow spot in pic 2). Next, cut off the factory bolt hole on the ac compressor (red line pic 3) and drill out the hole just forward of the original hole (yellow dot/arrow in pic 3)
Oh, now option two, cut off that one ear, then making a steel plate, that bolts to the remaining 3 holes, and add 4 holes/nuts to the plate that offset the compressor toward the drivers side of the engine by 1/4-1/2”.
Option 2 would obviously raise the intake a 1/4” or so but shouldn’t cause any problems as far ask clearance goes. I’m planning to try these out in the coming weeks so I’ll keep y’all posted on any results. If someone beats me to it, please post your results!
Hey everyone, today, I finally messed around with my serpentine ac bracket and an extra LA 318 that I have. I came up with a few potential solutions to enable the use of A/C with a crosswind style intake. Now first, let me just say, I’ve only eyeballed this and haven’t starting doing any actual mods.
Ok, first off, both options are going to require cutting off that one corner of the bracket that interferes with the t-stat housing. In option 1, cut the corner (red line in pic 2) then add material (aluminum weld or jb weld) to the “groove” beside that bolt hole, then drill and tap that. (Yellow spot in pic 2). Next, cut off the factory bolt hole on the ac compressor (red line pic 3) and drill out the hole just forward of the original hole (yellow dot/arrow in pic 3)
Oh, now option two, cut off that one ear, then making a steel plate, that bolts to the remaining 3 holes, and add 4 holes/nuts to the plate that offset the compressor toward the drivers side of the engine by 1/4-1/2”.
Option 2 would obviously raise the intake a 1/4” or so but shouldn’t cause any problems as far ask clearance goes. I’m planning to try these out in the coming weeks so I’ll keep y’all posted on any results. If someone beats me to it, please post your results!