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AS much as I want to keep my Patrician original. It is still 6 volt pos ground and I am the second owner with 56,000 miles.
I am thinking about putting air in it. It is too hot to injoy the car in Florida, I want to drive it. My questions are If I change it to 12 volt and add air will the engine
handle it or will I over heat? Do I need to put fan in front
of radiator or change it. What are my major problems going to be? I was thinking of going to vintage air in Tampa and put front and rear air in car.Need some opinions.Thank You.

Even with the price of gas today, most economical to drive to Maine for 6 months

Since you are not adverse to 12v, I think the other two problems will be the crankshaft pulley and the compressor mount. Don't know how much install or turnkey Classic or Vintage does on Packards so you may have to supply or make your own mount or at least give them ideas. They probably can answer most if not all your other questions though.

Several different style mounts people have done for the inline 8's are on site here. Maybe you could search and print a picture of a few of them to show. The other thing will be the compressor drive pulley. Finding a true 53-4 Packard AC pulley may prove difficult or expensive. It's a different configuration so I don't think adding a second PS pulley would work on that engine like it does on the V8. Turbopackman did mention a complete Ford vibration damper assy and it's add on pulleys which would fit. That would require completely changing what you have on crank side and may be issue if you have a wide belt. Gen would be gone & new alternator or gen pulley but the problem might be if you have a wide belt fan pulley--don't remember when Packard made the change to narrow but probably not a big deal finding a different pulley to fit if needed--spacing might be though if the setup changes much. Also don't know if anyone ever tried the Ford or even if it does fit-- but still an option to consider if you have problems with a real pulley. That info is also on site. If yours is a narrow belt, it may be possible to use the same belt for all--I believe others have, but IMO, not the best way to go.

Depending on what the AC company says, before committing to any radiator or fan changes, one possibility might be to ask about a remote condenser assy with it's own built in fan. It most likely could be mounted in or near the conventional place but by having it's own fan, maybe no need to disturb anything else.

If the car does not have PS, could you not drive it off the crank PS pulley and locate a compressor in the PS spot?

of course, still doing to be making your own brackets, but i've found universal sanden compressor brackets are easy to work with.

The fan in front? Maybe maybe not, depends how much airflow you're getting. if you upgrade to a modern fan instead of a 4 blade, likely you won't have to add electric. Muscle cars with ac didn't have electric fans.

The sanden compressor requires little in the way of HP, i think it would be milking less power than, say, driving the car with an extra passenger or two. I would not worry about that problem unless it reared its head if you're not having borderline overheating issues now, and if it did show up i'd start looking for a better, maybe aftermarket, radiator that had a larger cooling capacity.

Is your car an automatic? If not, you're not having any transmission fluid heating up the radiator, that may make a minor difference?


I have used old air products for other projects and they're great, and have universal and direct fit oem and aftermarket parts and kits.

You'll need to be creative to mount the compressor for sure and get it driven, but the real work is mounting the box under the dash, drilling the firewall, routing ducts, etc under the dash. If i were adding on, i'd get the vents and controls/system that doesn't replace the heating system too, and put the vents on that connect to the bottom of the dash, a la mustang.

Make darned sure the engine cooling is in really good shape. Specifically in the block: clean and efficient.

Good luck: a cool ride is far less fatiguing and far more enjoyable, especially with friends who are not so much into older cars. Nice to arrive fresh, not soaked.

Thank you for information. The car is automatic with PS and PB. Never over heated

Car has 4 groove pulley on bottom and 2 groove pulley on water pump
only using 2 grooves on bottom pulley. 1 for generator and 1 for ps. Both grooves used on water pump.What will I need on the engine?

It sounds as if you have the somewhat scarce AC Pulley. If so, the two outer unused grooves will be slightly smaller in diameter than the inner fan and PS grooves.

Anyway, if you have the pulley, that is most of the hard part. All you need now will be to decide on the type and location of compressor mount & who will build it and do the 12v conversion. Think you said you already decided the style AC unit you want although, IMHO, unless you routinely have back seat passengers not sure how much need for that second unit. You could make capacity provisions for the possibility though and install it later without too much additional work. Essentially all it would do is "tee" into the existing lines with refrigerant being controlled by a solenoid valve. One additional thing I would do is insulate the floor as best you can with something under the carpet. Several have used the reflective foil type sold in home stores. Not much chance of doing anywhere else without a major tear up. I would see how things check out before changing anything on the radiator, particularly if there is a chance of prior AC.

Finding the pulley, do you know if it's the original motor or did the car have AC at one time? Maybe you have some extra unaccounted holes in front of trunk & screw holes in L fender above blower or if hang-on aftermarket, maybe some in firewall & under dash? How about the fan -- standard 4 blade or is it a 6.

If the car at one time had factory air, then there would be evidence of the intake vents on the rear quarters, and also the vent holes in the rear package shelf. That pulley is worth it's weight in gold (well perhaps not at todays prices).

The car never had air . I bought the car from the original
owner 2 years ago. Never been painted .I had new rocker panels put in
and some work around the wheel wells. that is the only new paint.The 4 groove bottom pulley is not using front 2 grooves but they all look to be the same size. 4 blade fan.
Thank You