Airconditioning cooler unit

While crawling around and under the bus after first buying it, I realized that there was an airconditioning cooler mounted between teh frame rails. It has a vented cover plate to direct airflow through the cooler and looked to be original.

I poked around and peared above the system to see what I can discover, and low and behold two fans strattled the hot air pipe the runs the center of the bus toward the front.



I started to get excited about the possibility of reusing parts and bits from this set up for a radiator set up between the rails. I decided to pull the unit down and explore in more detail. This is the shot I took after I removed it from the bus, with the vented plate has been removed and you can see the aironditioning cooler.



Here is a closer shot of the two vent rows that supposedly direct air up and through the cooler. I haven't measured the stock Subaru raditator yet, but I believe I should be shooting for 1.5 or even two times the capacity over stock for my application. I am not sure if the dimensions of this vented plate will fit the size of radiator I will need! If anyone is running a certain sized radiator in a vanagon conversion with a Subie engine, please let me know the radiator dimensions.



Here are the original stock fans on the top of the unit that force air down through the cooler at slower speeds I suppose (not sure how they were intended to function on an airconditioner).



Next step is to determine the right sized radiator and then decide if I can buy stock from a different vehicle or if I will need to have one custom made. Once I know the size, I can determine whether the vented cover plate is going to fit.