VP Air Conditioning system

[VSCristian]

G'day Gents,

Should the metal pipes for the air conditioning system be insulated in foam? If so, what sort of foam would you use?

Most of the 5L VN/VPs engine bays that I see seem to have bare metal pipes, but I do believe that they were insulated when they came out of the factory.

The

 

[strgas]

The insulation was more for anti rattle then insulation , if the pipe was to rub or vibrate against the inner panels , some of the later pipes may have a small rubber donut around it to do the same job . insulating the pipe is not required .

 

[VPRob]

Good question VSCris
I recently pulled my VP apart to get the heater box out and replaced the heater core and the condensor and re-covered all the flaps. Helluva job but I love having my aircon working.
Clearly the aircon works well without those pipes being insulated so it is not necessary but I have wondered whether the aircon would be more effective on hot days if those exposed pipes were lagged/insulated. Those pipes continue under the plenum cover so it could be worth insulating those as well. Are aircon pipes insulated in other cars? I've never looked. Is there a reason not to do it?

 

[Jxfwsf]

Wouldn't make that much of a difference, any of the high side it'll keep the heat in making the condenser work harder, after the evaporator and before the high side it should be cold to touch those pipes anyway and that's after it's done it's job inside.

 

[Circlotron]

The skinny pipe is hot so leave that alone. The fat pipe is cold and so any heat it picks up from the engine compartment might reduce the remaining cooling capacity. On mine I wrapped the cold pipe with exhaust bandage. Also the drier-receiver can thing next to the firewall that also gets cold I wrapped up with some towelling.

Another thing you can do - have a look at the condenser in front of the radiator and see if there is a 25mm or so gap at either end. Probably the foam rubber perished and fell out years ago and now when you are stopped at the lights the main fan draws a certain amount of air around the condenser instead of through it. I got some rubber hot water pipe lagging from Clark Rubber and put it in the gaps. Improved the a/c by about 50%. -> Insulation for Pipes - Insulation | Clark Rubber Actually I probably could have slit it and put it on the cold pipe too.