ditching air conditioning..

[nando]

My air conditioning works perfectly, but I only use it one or two days out of the whole year. it is nice to have sometimes, but I could probably live without it. the only thing is, it works fine and I don't like the idea of destroying it by removing it. can I remove most of it without leaking out my R12 and destroying any of the parts? I talked to one of the other E30 drivers at the local autocross and he said he dropped 60lbs off his car by removing the AC.

how much are AC parts worth, and is there much demand for them? I know R12 is probably worth more than the entire AC system :P

will I even notice 60lbs off the front of my car? I don't have much trouble with understeer, only when I'm going too fast to begin with. but I know my car could use a bit more balance..

[AdamF 88iS]

Have a shop evacuate the R12 for you, and make sure you plug up the expansion vavle beceause they go bad if left open.

[nando]

is that all I need to do, is plug the expansion valve? I guess I should read my bentley and figure out where it is then. maybe next month I'll go fuh raze! ;)

[M-technik-3]

60 lbs doubt it unless you remove all of it. If you just remove the compressor and the few lines plus the condensor it will be about 35 lbs.

[AndrewBird]

The main thing is you will gain HP from removing the AC pump. The less things you have that the motor has to drive, the more power. That is why people go to electric fans vs stock crank powered fans.

Andrew

[M-technik-3]

You don't gain HP you just recover the loss of it. Due to paristic loss of belt, it's not like taking it off adds to the 168 to suddenly make 175.

[grlaneriejr]

Nando, the only thing you will gain is time in the 1/4 mile. as a rule of thumb, every 100 pounds shed from the car you will gain 1/10th second in the quarter mile.

Example:
500lbs weight savings = 1/2 second quicker ET

As far as the power increase, it will be negligible. The A/C system really only causes you to lose about 1% of your hp (from what I hear).

[nando]

I'm not looking for a power increase, I doubt it'd be more than .5hp anyway. I want to reduce the weight over the front wheels and bring the weight distribution closer to 50/50.