Crosswind air gap clone and ram truck serpentine setup

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Here's a picture of the AC delete pulley, you can see where it would interfere with the thermostat neck if the compressor were there

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Great pic Sport. Still thinking the shorter van compressor may work with some re-engineering. Cut here....new bracket there. Perhaps even shimming the AC mounting bracket or compressor up and a longer belt. Intake still hasn't arrived (3 weeks) so I can't do any mock up. On a positive note I scored an '01 5.9 with 72K on it for $300. Haven't pulled the heads yet but the lifter galley and rockers look like new. Thanks for the info.
 
So after thinking about the spacers, I did a little measuring to see and, sure enough the bolt hole would be right at the edge of the Tstat housing. Plus some more of the compressor behind that. The bolt holes are 5" by 5" center to center. That being said, there are some more holes on my compressor that measure 3.5" deep center to center. ( Not sure if they started making a dual fitment compressor or not) if the van compressor measures out to the 3.5 depth, maybe it will be around 4.5" deep total from the front bolt hole center. If so this could be a viable option for us to run without shelling out for another intake

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Hey Sport74,
Are you using the Van or Pick-up AC/Alt mount on your engine? Looks like there is a difference. I referenced your earlier pics and some from RockAuto and the compressors are a lot different in length but I could not get a good enough view to reference some measurements. On the van compressor, the back of the unit is just past the mounting holes. If I had to guess I would say 3/8". I have a Pick-up style compressor but does anyone have the Van style for comparison? The front of pulley to back side of rear mounting holes would be really helpful.
 
I don't have one. But a parts store probably does and if not, they might order one in for you to measure.
 
I am using the truck bracket. I'm pretty sure the van bracket would be different to accommodate the smaller compressor. My bracket has been Van Gogh'd to accommodate the intake also.
 
any update on the intake? I’m planning on running the same Chinese intake for the cost savings and I’ve used them with non AC set-ups in the past. They work great on stock/mild builds and again, the cost is great!
 
The intake performs nice. Still unable to fit a compressor on it though. I have tried EBay and the local scrap yards to find a van bracket and have come up empty. EBay says the have the van bracket, but when you look it's the same casting number. I even tried the parts houses to see if I could get measurements off of a van compressor to confirm that it is shorter. Nobody has one in stock and want me to pay for one to order it. So I have gave up on the A/C for now since it is cooler weather.
 
I heard mention at some point of 91 Dodge Dakota being a weird setup but don't remember ever seeing one, until last week. I was ata local junk yard and happened upon a 91 Dakota, 318 LA engine, with factory serpentire belt and AC. It appears to use an early Magnum style water pump.
The thermostat is in standard LA location, but the housing has a built-in offset toward right side. The AC bracket sits up higher than a Magnum. I have not had time yet to mock it up with the dual pattern intake, but I bought the parts because it looks like it may work.
I'll attach photos from of the Dakota I took before removing the bracket, but note the AC compressor was already missing.
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That is great information Bobzilla. Thanks. Please keep us posted when you mock up on the dual plane intake. I bought an LA cam cover but really want that serpentine with my AC and Crosswinds.
 
I mocked up Magnum heads, block, and timing cover, along with a dual pattern intake manifold. The 91 Dakota AC bracket does fit the Magnum timing cover, would clear the Magnum serpentine driven water pump and Magnum valve covers. It allows lots of room around the thermostat housing.
The negatives make it expensive, I would think. The Dakota thermostat housing will NOT work on the dual pattern intakes. The Dakota housing has mounting bolts that are roatated away from the standard LA position.
You would have to use an LA style thermostat housing and figure out an upper radiator hose that would come over the alternator, like a factory Magnum hose does.
The Magnum AC compressor that is readily available does not match the mounting area of the Dakota bracket, so it would require buying the compressor that fits the 91 Dakota. A quick search showed the serpentine version available as a remanufactured part only. I did not verify the rib count of the belts yet, and did not look further for Dakota AC compressor availability.
It looks like this bracket would work, but there would be no cost savings. Best bet is still to sell the dual pattern intake to someone running without AC, then invest in a real Edelbrock Magnum intake when using factory Magnum serpentine belt drive with factory Magnum AC setup and bracket.
You could fab some new brackets to mount the AC compressor or modify the factory Magnum bracket to move the compressor up, but now it gets pretty time consuming.
I'll put pictures of the mock-up in another post, since I already rambled on too much.
 
Bobzilla, what is the height of the compressor mounted on the bracket? Another thing to consider is the clearance if it gets too tall.

Approximately how much is the compressor raised up versus the stock magnum bracket? This has got me thinking about making a bracket that would essentially make the stock magnum bracket work like this
 
Rough measurement looks to be about ten inches from the top of the AC compressor down to the large flat area on top of the Magnum timing cover. It would probably be another inch higher with AC hose assembly bolted on to the top of that compressor.
Keep in mind, I am assuming the Dakota compressor is about the same diameter, but not sure.
Modifying the common Magnum bracket is probably the cheapest and easiest way to go, other than trying to run with that right rear compressor mounting bolt cut off the bracket as others have mentioned in early posts.
 
I tried to run the compressor after removing the ear on the bracket. The compressor still interfered with the water neck. My thoughts are to make a bracket that will bolt to the bracket like the AC delete bracket, but will angle the compressor like the Dakota bracket and possibly move it down wind towards the valve cover
 
Ok so I finally found a ram van in a junkyard about 30-40 minutes from me. Plan is to go get the ac compressor bracket sometime this week. I’ll keep y’all posted.
 
Hey Bobzilla.....looking at your pics. The t-stat/radiator hose connection is aimed away from the radiator (dakota). I have a housing from a 2001 2500 Ram that points straight up. In your estimation, is there clearance to go straight up from the t-stat? Difficult to tell from the camera angle. Would the late model housing even seat properly on the dual plane? Thanks.
 
Hey Bobzilla.....looking at your pics. The t-stat/radiator hose connection is aimed away from the radiator (dakota). I have a housing from a 2001 2500 Ram that points straight up. In your estimation, is there clearance to go straight up from the t-stat? Difficult to tell from the camera angle. Would the late model housing even seat properly on the dual plane? Thanks.

The crosswind uses the LA style housing. The late model magnum that's a straight up is about 3/4" narrower bolt to bolt than the LA style and won't work on that intake.
 
The Magnum thermostat and housing are smaller diameter than the dual pattern intakes and most LA intakes.
I failed to take a picture looking straight down, but that cheap chrome housing is mostly under the AC compressor, so I don't think anything coming straight up would work.
 
Were you ever able to get pics of this? I’d like to see how close it is. @myduster360 told me at the Nats Saturday that the ram van ac compressors are shorter than the truck compressors, so if the interference is at the back corner of the compressor, the van compressor might remedy this! Here’s a few pics for comparison.

Truck compressor.
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Van Compressor.
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I’m gonna go do some junkyarding one day this week and see what I can find.
Well, I got the van ac bracket pulled but I left it at the junkyard for now as I ran out of time and I wanna grab the power steering bracket as well. That said, I’m afraid the van bracket/compressor really won’t make much difference. Sure, the van compressor body is shorter than the truck compressor but if you look at the photos in my comment that I quoted ^^ you can see that the front plate/snout of the van compressor is longer than the pickup compressor. So I think the total length of the compressors are gonna end up being about the same length. When I go back for the power steering bracket, I’ll take the van compressor over to a pickup and compare them side by side and let y’all know what I find out.
 
Unfortunately, I believe the van compressor is a no go. I made it back to the junkyard today and I held the van compressor next to truck compressor and overall it’s nearly the same length.
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Now, if it’s possible to put the front plate, clutch/pulley, etc. from the truck compressor on the van compressor, you could gain some clearance but I don’t know if it’s possible to swap those parts or not.
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I’m going to use the kegger on my engine so I’ll just run the truck compressor. If I were to use the crosswind intake, I’d cut off that 4th ear and build an adapter plate that shifts the compressor toward the drivers side a bit.
 
Nice work Slant. You efforts are greatly appreciated!!!
When the time comes for me to swap my 5.9 back to efi, I’ll swap the magnum front cover back on and leave the crosswind on there and see if I can’t get it worked out where a truck compressor can be used with the crosswind, before I switch back to the kegger. It’ll probably be a few months yet but I’ll see what I can come up with
 
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