Doug Hargrove's Heating and Air Conditioning
In my Crown conversion I fabricated a heating and cooling unit which was mounted in the engine compartment. I modified the stock heater duct to connect to the fabricated unit. The stock heater controls are used with the addition of an AC switch. A panel was fabricated with an AC discharge mounted under the dash with control switches. The amount of air flow is restricted due to the size of the air duct coming through the floor. A booster fan is installed behind the dash ducts to increase air flow while the AC is on. The defrost control box under the dash was redesigned to provide three air paths, dash, defrost and floor. The fan speed resistors were changed to match the high flow fan from a Dodge Stratus. Everything works with a few notable issues - the heater is not as hot as the Corvair (no 300+ degree air from engine) and the AC has limited flow (air duct restriction).
I designed and built the accessories brackets. The heater / cooler unit is very close to the down run headers. AC compressor is on the driver's side and the water pump is painted blue. I did make a change by moving the alternator to the drivers side below the AC compressor driving the alternator by a belt from the second grove of the compressor. It has been this way for 10,000 miles with no problems. The alternator is 120 amp which I deemed necessary to power the fans used on the rear mounted radiator. Not pictured is the stainless steel heat shield between the water line and the headers which protects the rubber hoses, works great.
