removing AC from e30

[butters181]

hello all,

im planning on making my e30 a auto x car and am starting with removing things i wont exactly need, and im starting with the ac. anyone know of a site or whatnot that carries steps on how to do this? i wanna do it right. thanks

[thejlevie]

The only thing special about removing the A/C is having someone pull the charge is the system is still full of freon. Other than that it is simply a matter or disconnecting all of the lines and removing all the parts.

[kishg]

have a shop discharge the freon (or you can bleed via the bleed nipple but that's against federal law and i didn't tell you about it), then disconnect at the compresser end, it's pretty obvious when you start looking.

[geezerman402]

Heh, nipple.

Anyhow, are you turning it into a total track rat, or still a daily driver?

[butters181]

ok ill see if a shop round here will do that, i was told some charge you. and i havent started studying what ill be getting into just yet. is there anything i need to 'move' to pull the ac stuff out?

ill still drive it round a little. but its gonna be my track car

[geezerman402]

Have you done autox yet? Just asking because the way we do it here is everyone does one lap, everyone does another lap, etc, so there's a lot of waiting in line. And on hot days, AC is an absolute blessing.

[butters181]

i havent done it yet but my friend does. and yea he goes in the morning and does a couple laps then another persons after him, etc. my ac doesnt work and i dont care to spend money making it work, im perfectly ok with just windows down lol

[geezerman402]

Well in that case I wouldn't bother fixing it either.

[butters181]

haha :) so i think it should go bye bye

[kishg]

does it not work due to lack of charge?, in which case, discharging the freon isn't an issue. nothing really to move but you got to undo the hard lines coming into the engines bay. take a look, its pretty self evident.

[butters181]

well theres the ac compressor, and w/e u wanna call it thats infront of the radiator with the fan

[kishg]

yes, once the system is discharged, you can remove the lines to the compressor and remove the compressor from it's bracket. the aux fan is whats in front of the radiator.

[butters181]

it looks like the radiator is in the way? im really not looking forwards to having to take that out if i do..looks like a pain lol

[kishg]

yes, you need to take the radiator out to remove the aux fan. leave it in if you don't want to deal with removing the radiator but other than draining the coolant, radiator removal takes 5m.

[KenAllen08]

Yeah, have a AC place discharge the R12. They'll do it for free because R12 is costly and they want it.

[butters181]

so wait. if i have to remove the radiator is there anyway of not having to drain coolant? like jus undo the radiator and kinda move the aux fan around it so i dont have to unhook hoses...

[iwantspeed]

no
drain the coolant
unbolt the radiator hoses
unbolt the 2 clips for the fan shroud
unbolt the 2 bolts for the radiator done.

[ddavidv]

Removing the radiator is so easy...don't resist it.
Pull the compressor, all the brackets, the condenser in front of the rad, the lines that enter the car. You may have to pull out the glovebox to get to the lines inside. Once you have the hoses out, you can just wrap duct tape around the firewall grommet to close up the holes and put it back in. Hasn't leaked for me.

Now, depending on the class rules, you may want to dump the clutch fan and just run the electric a/c pusher fan. You can buy oem brackets to attach it to the radiator support or make your own. Dumping the clutch fan really cleans up the front of the engine and eliminates another engine drag item.

[kishg]

+10 on removing fan clutch and adding electric fan

[MattH]

If you're just looking for the weight reduction, removing the compressor will get rid of 90% of it. Get the condenser out later when you have to remove the radiator for some other reason.

First you need to determine if there is any refrigerant in the system. The best way to do this is to remove one of the hard lines. If it makes a hissing noise then there is still refrigerant. Once the noise stops you'll know that there is now no longer any refrigerant in the system and you can proceed with removing everything else.

Matt

[DSP74]

Inside the car you will have to remove the evaporator, under the dash. You remove the center consoles, and glove box, and you will be able to get it out of there. The hard lines are connected to it, so remove all of it as one unit.

You do need to remove the radiator to remove the condenser. You can buy brackets from Pelican parts that mounts the stock aux fan...You lose the brackets for it when you remove the condenser. Just remove the stock fan/clutch.



It's not hard, just time consuming

If you aren't using it/going to use it, it makes sense to remove it. Removing things like this is one of the only FREE performances increases you can do. FWIW the entire A/C system adds up to ALOT of weight....I can't remember how much the compressor weighed but I would guess everything is at LEAST 30lbs. The condenser alone was 6lbs, evap and lines another 6+

There are TONS of other places to remove weight if you really try. Any particular autox class. I was originally going to build a DSP autox car but I've since given up. I know pretty much what can/can't be removed for that class, and a to the limit car should only weigh about 2300-2350lbs with full interior.

[djb2]

The compressor is only a little more than half the system weight.

A/C measured or listed weights
Bosch compressor 19.8lbs (dry)
(NipponDenso compressor is a few pounds less)
Evaporator + expansion valve 4.8 lbs, 2200g
Drier 1.7lb 696g-782g (several brands and types weighed)
R12 2.16lb
Mineral oil 0.4 lbs
Most hoses are a little under a 1 lb.

[butters181]

thanks for all your help guys. my friend helped me with it and it got done successfully. and it was fun :) thanks again