I'm really liking what you've got going here. Can't wait to see pictures of your final system!

 

Alright guys, ran into a couple hiccups I'm sorting.

1. The KC/Inter guys actually put the "drag kit" on the low pressure side. I pieced together isolating the high pressure side. Two problems with this, it isolates the pressure/temp sensor, and there is only about 1 ft of high pressure #6 hose in minimal space to work with vs the low pressure #12 which has about two feet and a nice big straight run easy to install everything. I will revise the parts list a little later to do the same thing, because it will be significantly easier. (edit, works fine not an issue)
2. Turns out a couple of the fittings were "special order" from eaton, and they were just not going to inform me and hope it showed up at some point. I didn't find out until I called to ask them where the hell the missing pieces were (One of them has a lead time of november . So I put an order in through some one else so hopefully I will have the parts early next week.

The rated bend radius of the eaton #6 hose is actually pretty good, only 2 inches of length required for a 90*. I may try to come up with something still, and go ahead and isolate the temp/pressure sensor and see what it does. I believe it is just a low/high pressure cut off and a freeze protection to slow the compressor down in those situations. If that's the case when isolated it should still see low side pressure and warm temps so I am kind of thinking it wont matter. Any ways, will update soon.

I did have another idea as well, for the bypass I decided not to use (isolating the heat exchangers). I will use it to provide a bypass to the KC during WOT in the same way I will use the other to bypass the heat exchangers during normal cruising. It will save my pumps from about 5 ft of hose worth of head loss as well as the flow restriction of the evaporator. Might help out with flow during WOT? Might be a waste of time, who knows but I'm going to try it

 

I'm barley keeping up with you in understanding everything you are saying, but I'm remembering a discussion years age about these AC pumps shutting down at WOT. Have you found a way around that?

 

They don't shut down at WOT,

 

Where did you get that info? The general consensus has always been that it does. You would basically need a pressure gauge on the high pressure side to monitor pressure during WOT to verify.... I might check this. Might be able to monitor the pressure sensor via star as well. I have both, I'll figure something out and verify probably.

 

No I havent looked into it at all. I assume it is probably controlled via load or throttle from the ME to what ever SAM controls the AC, and is probably something I cant do unless there is an easy setting in star. But that's why i planned on bypassing the KC evaporator during WOT :-P. I already made a little manifold with a couple solinoid and have it all mostly plumbed in. Going to get everything staged and waiting for the last couple KC fittings.

 

I’m still trying to understand where the oem system is being tapped.

 

Low pressure side #12 hose going down to the compressor suction, next to the coolant expansion tank.



High pressure side #6 hose at bottom of radiator where it comes out of the dryer (the one on the right with the green sticker).

 

Quick update, got all the IC side plumbing done, KC insulated and installed just waiting on a couple pesky A/C fittings that are delayed. Have some wiring left to do and the A/C side of things when my last fittings get here. I did run into an issue, I realized you can't spin two 90* fittings into the chiller because how how close the fittings are. Once the water side fittings are on the 90* NPT to ORS AC fittings can't be put it. I have plenty of downward room where I installed the chiller so I ordered a couple male-female 3/4 NPT extensions to get the AC fittings low enough to put be able to spin. (edit, I changed the parts list on the front page to use straight NPT to ORS adaptors on the AC side going to a 90* ORS-hose fitting so if you use the parts listed this will not be an issue for you)


The chiller

Cutting some adhesive neoprene to insulate the evaporator.

Thick neoprene insulation applied.

Then I went over all the seams with some of this I got from lowes to make sure there would be no condensation.

Seams covered.

I decided I was going to mount it with hose clamps, so I made a couple brackets out of thin aluminum I had around to protect the insulation from the clamps.

Clamps and fittings on. Excuse my mix match of fittings, it's what I had around. Not pretty I know. The reason for the 4" extension was based on where my hoses would be coming from.

I mounted it in the location of the SAI pump. If you have or can delete your SAI pump you can put it here as well. I found that there is a frame bolt on the back of the area, as well as the mount for the air pump that will cut up the insulation so I taped a couple of very think pieces of sheet metal to those spots on the chiller to make sure the insulation didnt get cut through.

Chiller installed and plumbed up. If you install in this location you need to keep the chiller as far left as possible, the fog light sits on the front right corner of the chiller.

Test fit of the bumper, like a glove, and tons of room to work with for the AC fittings when they get here.

 

Okay thanks. So low side could have an adapter at the A/C compressor so the line itself is not breached (original concern).

And the high side could have an adapter for coming off of the dryer, also not breaching the oem line.

 

When you get rid of Air tragic you can put it where the pump resides now. Just a though for MK2 or MK3.

 

Hey,

I was just wondering the reasoning for going with the brazetek and getting rid of the duda diesel parts from the list?

Cheers,

 

Ultimately it was because of space. I have a very busy front end with three pumps and two hx. I wouldn't be able to fit the larger doudadiesel heat exchanger in the location I selected, and of the two smaller ones from douda and brazetek, the brazetek is actually slightly larger, had a higher BTU rating, and the 3 MPA pressure rating so I went with it. Since I wouldn't be ginny pigging the 1 MPA douda heat exchangers I didnt want to list them for any one. I can repost the ones I was looking at though if any one is interested in trying them still

 

Evening update. Fittings are supposed to be here tomorrow! And it's the last track day of the year, TOMORROW. So I'm hoping USPS has me everything by 11AM, make up my AC connections, refill, hit the track with frigid cold IATs. I will grab some pics of the AC set up and update the first post with a bit more DIY help, along with my results.

Everything is all set up, just need the A/C connections. I have two bypasses in, one normally open bypass around the heat exchangers, and one normally closed bypass around the chiller. I got a sweet as completley programable controller for $20 that I set up to run off my boost switch. Three second time delay in boost and then it brings the heat exchangers into the circuit (closes hx bypass), and opens the KC bypass. Then it stays that way for about 10 seconds off boost (fully adjustable time delays, I'll play with them to find a sweet spot if any of this even matters). It has a program function of delay on, and delay off (one of like 50 modes of operation) with customizable time delays. I ran the output of that controller to the trigger of a relay I had laying around that has both a NO and a NC contact. Ran the NC contact to the heat exchanger bypass, and the NO contact to the KC bypass. Already all tested out, works great. Here is the controller:
I also came across some older KC pics and they were initially sending a standard automotive high pressure side solinoid valve in there kits, so I'm pretty confident the high pressure side "drag mode" valve will work fine now.


Controller. This thing is really cool, very customizable.


Little bypass valve manifold I rigged up with some cheap 3/4 solinoids. (edit, I think this was a waste of time but it was fun to play with. I listed a good motor-operated three way bypass valve on the first post now)

 

So everything works, but it needs some fine tuning. With the motor cold and the hood open drag mode off got me 64 degree water in my tank steady. Drag mode on dropped it down to 54 degree water and 59 degree intake temps steady with outside air ~80. I let it sit like this for almost 10 minutes and the tank water temp was very consistent so no TXV issues. This is just idling, hood open in the garage. Real world is a bit worse though. Once the engine is heat soaked, hood down it strugles a bit more. I saw about 10 degrees below ambient IAT while cruising with drag mode on. However even worse is when sitting still at the track. After letting it sit hood open for a while it would walk temps down to about 5 below ambient but sitting idling with the hood down in staging for 20 minutes would creep IAT to 5-10 above ambient. Granted, before if I sat idle at a grocery store or drive though for 20 minutes I've seen temps as high as 150 degrees so 85-90 when it's 80 degrees out obviously it's doing some good work.

I think ultimately 172/72 fixed heat is not going to be beat once everything is good and warm with the hood down and no where for that heat to go. So next up I'm going to do a couple things:

1. Today I'm switching from R134 to 12a and I'll redo the cold motor hood open test, same conditions and see what water temps are with a probe.
2. I'm going to switch to a proper heat exchanger bypass three way valve because that heat exchanger was ice cold when IC water was 54. Definetly plenty of flow through it.
3. Need to work on more insulation on the engine bay hose to try to keep engine heat out of the IC water as much as possible.
4. Going to switch to a larger clutched SC pulley as well. Switch to 172/76

Ill do the 12a test today without changing anything else though so there are no other differences in similar conditions. Also, I took a bunch of pics of the install, and broke my phone. So they are gone. I'll try to get some more pics at some point but the T connections are insulated with sticky tape so probably wont be getting those. Sorry guys.

 

Nice! So I’m in same boat as you with recent KC install but my a$$ paid $1k for my kit (LOL). Here’s my prelim readings for comparison. I’m running 72 fixed pulley so I’m figuring more than average heat.

With total HE deleted, I’m seeing ice tank temp at 59* without drag kit engage. No data with drag kit on; haven’t connect wires yet. Still logging data and fine tuning KC. Overall, I’m seeing 10* below ambient on 85-90* hot days at cruising. Cabin temp is cool but not freezing during hot temp days. On cooler days, 76-81* ambient I’m seeing 57-65 IAT sometime 57*; cabin temp is perfect in cooler weather. Haven’t done much WOT so I’ll update. But when I stepped on it a bit I see IAT rapidly spike but quickly recover back down.

Yep mimicking Drothgeb on 12a Freon recharge and insulation. Getting LOTS of great guidance from D!!!!

 

Well, 12a was a bust. Surprising because there is so much good feedback for the stuff around the net and KC seems to claim 10 degrees lower with it. Slightly colder day today and got the same drag kit off water temp of ~64 but then it only dropped to a lowest of 59 with drag mode on (vs 54 on the r134 on a slightly warmer day). Only started with 2 cans which is slightly less then our normal 33oz charge. Creeped up the charge slowly to see if it would get any better but no go, just got worse. In cab AC felt like pretty poor as well.

I know there is some feedback from a couple guys on this forum that said they didn't have any luck with 12a and went back to R134 but there is sooo much feedback on other boards I had to give it a shot. Chalking it up as a loss and switching back to 134.

 

Updated the final parts list. Changed the AC side NPT to ORS adaptors from 90* to straight so that you wont have an issue trying to put the fittings on when the IC water fitting is on also. Then a 90* ORS to ez clip hose fitting will go on the adapter but that has a swivel nut, no problem.

Just so every one knows this is up and running, works great. Lowest I've seen is about 20* below ambient but usually it's around 10 below ambient after everything is good and hot (this is with a fixed 172/72 stack and TWO heat exchangers heating the water back up when it's <ambient). Drag valve works great and gets about 10* lower tank temps. I am going to soon install a good legitimate three way bypass valve for the heat exchangers now linked in the first post, as well as switch to a clutched SC pulley and will update with more results later on.

 

Good results esp using a fixed pulley. For ease I would still just buy the kit from Kincaid but the work and great list you did is great for those more so inclined. Should see a little more of a drop when you switch to clutched. I was typically getting 20 under running a 195.

 

(Thought I posted this).

Did you post a routing diagram? I may have missed it.

 

Thanks definitely a lot simpler to just get the chunk from a vendor. By any chance do you have a way you found setting the cab AC works best? To be honest I don't think I've really noticed a difference whether it's on auto with temp at 70, or temps all the way down fan on low, or even defrost/heat on as long as AC is in. But I haven't done a whole lot of good observing just played around a little bit. Have you happened to come up with any settings you think works best or not noticed a difference?

Nope but I definitely will shortly.

 

By any chance do you have a way you found setting the cab AC works best? To be honest I don't think I've really noticed a difference whether it's on auto with temp at 70, or temps all the way down fan on low, or even defrost/heat on as long as AC is in. But I haven't done a whole lot of good observing just played around a little bit. Have you happened to come up with any settings you think works best or not noticed a difference?


I never notified a diff in performance based on the temp set in the cabin. Hell you can set to high heat so long as the AC is on the KC setup will work.

 

2003 S55 AMG. If the heat exchangers are removed and the drag kit isn't installed, what parts (fittings, hose, etc.), can be deleted from the parts list?
The Heat Exchanger Bypass Valve is one.

How are these DIY kits working out, long-term? I think a bigger (longer) heat exchanger would be better.

 

5 gal tank temp lol , dual KC set up in trunk

 

Feezi g low temp.
where you get that temp gauge from?