What else does my air conditioner do, besides cooling the cab, on my 03 F250 6.0 diesel truck?
AC in general cools the air and the AC also pulls moisture out of the air. When you put your truck’s climate control on “defrost” that also turns on the AC compressor. This is to take humidity out of the cabin air and makes the defrost mode more effective.
Someone said it cools the turbo as well, know anything about that?
Cooling the air that eventually goes thru the turbo on the way to cylinders for combustion helps make the air “denser” and increases the power generated by the motor. I don’t believe these turbo “intercoolers” use the AC in the cooling process but I’m not directly familiar with the various systems out there. Others can add to this discussion.
Using the AC adds load to the engine, but nothing more.
I seriously doubt the AC has anything whatsoever to do with the turbocharger. Whoever told you there was a connection is wrong. If your truck has an intercooler, which many turbocharged vehicles have, it is separate from the AC.
They wouldn’t design a system that relied on AC use to cool the turbocharger, since AC is not used all the time. The turbocharger is ALWAYS working. The AC is not.