Upgrading to Parallel Flow Condenser

[nrubenstein]

Nrub live in Washington, DC which isn't hot/not humid comparing to us. Is why he is getting 40f from his a/c.

Right. That's why I'm blowing 2 degrees colder than he is in weather 10 degrees hotter. He didn't say what his fan speed was, either.

[immajackuup]

This was from my own personal experience. I wrote this up to help others out and I've already heard some success from this.

As far as your pictures...cool, keep your stock condenser. More money and time in your pocket. I just found a big improvement from my old one, that's all. Everyone's system is different.

Nrub live in Washington, DC which isn't hot/not humid comparing to us. Is why he is getting 40f from his a/c.

[HI-BOOST]

Nice write up bro. People need to appreciate when someone take some of their time to write up something like this to try and help others.

a/c is for waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffless......true story

I got to agree!

[redsubdivisions]

This was from my own personal experience. I wrote this up to help others out and I've already heard some success from this.

As far as your pictures...cool, keep your stock condenser. More money and time in your pocket. I just found a big improvement from my old one, that's all. Everyone's system is different.

[nrubenstein]

Managed to stick a thermometer in my vents to see what the coldest I could get my car to this morning before I got to work. With ambient temps in the 80's, I managed to get to 38 degrees with the recirculation button on. Yes, I know I "cheated" by using the recirculation button, but the point of all this was to get the car as cool as possible. And it does its job very nicely now!

Stock condenser while driving:



Stock condenser idling:



Soo... Still trying to figure out what the performance improvement is.

[redsubdivisions]

that's nothing,i want to see during 100+ temp.

I can't wait to test out my a/c.:p

lol go for it. Anything colder and you will freeze your evaporator.

[immajackuup]

that's nothing,i want to see during 100+ temp.

I can't wait to test out my a/c.:p

[redsubdivisions]

Managed to stick a thermometer in my vents to see what the coldest I could get my car to this morning before I got to work. With ambient temps in the 80's, I managed to get to 38 degrees with the recirculation button on. Yes, I know I "cheated" by using the recirculation button, but the point of all this was to get the car as cool as possible. And it does its job very nicely now!

[redsubdivisions]

did you remove the evaporator when flushing it?

No, I didn't flush the evaporator. I simply pulled it out, hosed the fins down and got as much gunk as I could out of there. Remember, our cars don't have cabin filters, so I think that also helped with cooling.

[Gruelius]

did you remove the evaporator when flushing it?

[clydesdale]

I just put in a drop in PF and a new stock replacement aux fan from MTC. I have 43 degree air blowing in my face with temps of 86 outside. This is at around town speeds. This is with 134a. My stock condenser was completely screwed and the fins pretty much fell off of it during removal. I am pleased. Also, I would totally remove the radiator to get to the condenser. It is very easy.

[nrubenstein]

will be doing this as i hate how the performance goes down at idle.
thanks!

Bypass the aux fan resistor. You can do that with zero disassembly for free. Or better yet, install a new, high quality pusher fan.

[redsubdivisions]

will be doing this as i hate how the performance goes down at idle.
thanks!

I think no matter how hard we try, the idle performance will never be as good as you are in motion. My advice is to bypass the resistor on the fan and put it on high speed all the time.

[nrubenstein]

I pulled the front end so I didn't make a huge mess and have to rebleed my cooling system. Yes, it it possible to do it by taking the radiator out, but this is another alternative. As far is being a waste of time, to each his own. I went from only getting 58F at night time with recirculation on to in the early 40's at night. that temperature is a nice reduction from the stock setup and this is really meant for everyone that has R-134 conversion.

And why would you put in a serpentine in? That's similar to the tube and fin design. I just went straight for the parallel flow design because it dissipates heat a LOT more than a T&F/Serpentine would.

If you were getting 58F with recirc on under pretty much any circumstances, then you had a problem with your system that was not related to the condenser.

As for the serpentine, I put it in because I had it and the (18 month old) Behr was leaking. There had been some hope a while ago that we would receive a pf unit when ordering a specific part number, but it didn't pan out after the first couple. I had assumed that it would perform as well as stock. Unfortunately, it just wasn't even in the same ballpark as stock.

[bimmershark]

a/c is for waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffless......true story