Killer Chiller affecting a/c temps
 

Guys I recently installed a KC into my car. Overall it appears to be doing as it should keeps aits about 20-30 below ambient. However, I'm not sure its worth the sacrifice I'm noticing in A/C performance. When its 70-80 degrees outside a/c works good enough to not complain. However 90-95 degrees outside the a/c really suffers badly. Especially when left to idle!! Today I left it idle in the lot with my wife and kid in the car for about 10 minutes, it was 92 degrees outside and ait's were about 70 when I parked it, a/c was reasonably cool. Came back out ten minutes later, aits were 110 and a/c was non existent. Drove the car for like 15 minutes and aits did come back down to about 90 but a/c never got cold again until I let it sit for a few hours and restarted. Not cool!!!

I'm noticing when driving around in city traffic in this weather aits are about 20 below ambient, but a/c never really gets cold, basically still need to keep windows open. Cruising at highway speeds for long distances does help the a/c but still not what I feel is good enough when it's this hot out. Has anybody had trouble with this and have some solutions? Its plumbed in after the h/e and then goes to the trunk tank 2.5 gallon and then to the intercooler. I've heard removing the h/e can help with a/c temps? Anybody seen a difference by doing so? Also I've been told you can wire a fan to blow over the condenser to help with this? Anybody have positive results with this?

Many have posted only 5-6 degree temp difference in a/c which is not the case for me especially when its hot out. At this point I'm seriously considering removing it altogether. For me it's not worth suffering in the heat with no A/C. Reminds me of driving around in a beater when I was a teenager with no A/C!! Not how I should feel driving around in this car IMO.

I really dont race the car around on the street anyway, and a tank full of ice at the drag strip always worked wonders before. Not knocking the product just wonder if any of you that are also running it have had similar experiences and solutions to fix.

Only thing that works slightly better is to overcharge it a bit. Otherwise I have the same problem. The seals tend to leak so I top it off right before summer and it usually is fine through the season.

This will happen with KC kit, since your AC system is working very hard to cool down your coolant it eventually heat soaks the condenser. Still a better setup than the original heat exchanger which would get heat soaked quicker and offer almost zero gains on IAT temps vs KC.

I was reading some posts previously and they were talking about making a switch to 'shut off' the KC so that you A/C doesn't suffer as much, did you get any info about it when you purchased the kit?

What adianaty said, in the summer the cabin will get hotter with KC

Has anybody run the condenser fan? Also are you guys using HE or is it removed/bypassed?

No he and I did the -10 mod

I haven't done that, I suppose it would help move more air under there too. Isn't there a hot weather climate setting in star for the A/C as well? I thought I read something about that but not sure what it actually does. I may try to bypass the h/e, the -10 mod plus any other a/c setting in star and see if that helps. If not maybe pick up the condenser fan and see.

maybe replace the AC receiver dryer, part is only $40ish.

I just responded to PM.

I recently recharged mine and found it was low. I haven't done an extended drive yet, but the driver's side is cooler than it was.

I have to top it off but in the summer you will suffer, I have had talks about this with joe many times, it's our E's they have don't have great ac systems :(

Okay I will have them look for my settings in star. How are you guys topping off the system? I've read that our compressors are always running so filling based on the pressure is not accurate. Sounds like the dealer actually uses a machine that measures the actual volume of refrigerant added? Thinking that the volume has to be different than stock now that the k/c is added so a dealer may not be able to help either? I guess I will pick up a can and just add very small amount and see if it improves at all.

thought the new kit was suppose to help

I will look into this as well. I know that you are not running a h/e correct? Did you run your system with a h/e and without and have comparisons between the two? I'm thinking it can only help ait's and a/c temp by removing it from the system. Only question is on WOT pulls with the a/c shutting off how high do the temps jump. Also in cold weather with heat on does the a/c system still function if you have it on? IE interior temp set to 80 degrees 50 degrees outside but a/c set to on, will the system actually still be running and cooling the k/c core?

I have the brand new kit, and it does work better than the previous for sure. Like I said at 70-80 outside it works great, not ice cold air but pretty good. It's just when it is very hot outside does it suffer. Joe did suggest the condenser fan additions for hot climates. I will try some more options that others have suggested and see if I can't get it working a bit better

keep us posted i want to get the kc soon. and bypass he for summer

You need to have a tank for the cold water , min 1.5 gallons so you when when you go wot the tank with cold water will keep iats down as the compressor will shut off on wot.

Update to those that want to know. Speedriven removed the H/E, did -10 fan mod, and also took a bit of 134-a out of the system actually. The system was not overfull, but at the top end of the pressure it should be at. It is actually working 100% better right now!! Iats' are lower than ever consistently 25 below ambient, also a/c temps are sometimes as low as 45-46 degrees. Haven't had any 90 plus degree days yet, but I know the air is much colder than it was before when it's 80 out. Not sure which actually remedied the issue or a combination of all three, but I'm very happy!! Thanks again to Speedriven for getting it figured out for me. Marcin stated from the beginning that having two valves fighting each other is an issue. I think playing with the 134-a pressure helped a lot. The K/C really is a good product just takes a bit of effort to get it dialed in correctly :y

It was likely the HE delete that fixed the problem. The general idea is that a HE will use ambient air to cool the intercooler fluid in a normal setup because the water is hotter than the ambient air. In a KillerChiller setup on a 90+ degree ambient day, the HE is blowing ambient air that is hotter than the fluid, and the compressor has to work harder to keep temps down with the HE acting as a leak in the cold circulation.