I was wondering how hard it is to remove the air conditioner and how much horsepower will increase with the removal of it

 

It is easy to remove the AC, just takes some time, like 20 minutes. But what kind of belt are you going to run to keep your powersteering?

HP gain? not that much IMO. It saves some weight, but I like cold air when it is hot outside.

thesaint

 

When the air conditioner is turned off, the compressor is just freewheeling so you'll basically gain nothing. The main reason for removal is to increase airflow to the radiator and remove some of the clutter inside the engine bay.

 

i removed mine b/c i am alergic to a/c anyway. clears up some clutter and the condenser is a restriction to the radiator. the belt to use is goodyear # 360k6 about $9 at any auto parts store.

 

wow, i never heard of someone being alergic to a/c. that sucks man.

 

yep i like the heat anyways. i HATE being cold.

 

Can the air condenser be moved to a more flat position to allow more air to hit the radiator directly. Anyone do this?

 

yep. Before I took my AC out, I was planning on putting the ac condenser parallel with the ground, underneath the radiator/intercooler. I've seen it done on a few cars now.

 

don't do it...the fd is like an oven...it's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes ok i'm bored

 

Man you are bored LOL

I live in hot FL and never use the ac anyway.

Will the tubes bend without breaking or should I remove AC refrigerant and do this?

thanks!!

 

I have my condenser parallel with the ground beneath my radiator and fmic. I even had enough room to stick a 12" fan on the bottom blowing air up, which helps keep my ac cool. As low as my car is i've never had any problems with rubbing or damage to the fan.

 

94touring

Can you email or post or pm me how you did this, any tips or tricks to watch out for?

Thanks! Your help is very appreciated!

 

With the apexi fmic, and others you have to relocate your condensor. With a intercooler kit you have all the approriate brackets and so fourth to make the move easy. I'm sure it can be done without a fmic, it would just take some time to figure out and a few trips to the hardware store. Anyways, unfortunatly putting the condensor on the bottom of the car parallel with the ground doesn't allow much air flow and makes the ac work poorly. However you can easily fit a fan on the condenser without worrying about it getting ripped off over speed bumps or whatever. All you have to do is splice into the existing fan wires to make the fan work. In my case I have my radiator fans working through the haltach, they come on at 180 and shut off at 175, very cool feature. So since I still have the stock fan connectors available, I simply took my stock radiator fan connector, cut one off and spliced it into a fan I bought at auto-zone. So now anytime I want ac, I just hit the button like normal and the fan comes on and i'm cool and happy.

 

Oh yeah, I used both stock connectors and spliced into a single 12" fan. It makes it "zing" its spinning so fast.

 

You'll gain as much horsepower from removing the a/c as you will from just setting the switch to "off".

 

I live in MN right now and took out my condeser so I could get better flow to the radiator. Now I'm moving to FL in 10 days, I hope I can bare the heat. just have to have the windows down lots.

Mike

 

If you want to lose 50 or so horsepower just push that little AC button.

 

94touring

Was it necessary to remove the refigerant to move things around or did everything bend fine? If its too much hassle, I may just remove it all.

Thanks again!

 

The A/C uses about 10hp when cycling....not that much, really.

 

You will have to bend everything around, we didn't have any problems. You just need to be carefull when bending.

 

evot23,
Yeah I did this too - lowered the condensor flat that is;
Perhpas the following will help you visualize what I did.
http://www.negative-camber.org/crispyrx7/cwric3.htm

Regards,
Crispy

 

From what I have read it appears to be easier to add an additional fan than move the condenser. Is this also more effective in keeping cool?

 

My mom is too. Funny, I always thought she was full of ****!!

 

I removed mine cuz i dont use it anyways. It saved some weight too. The FD is actually set up to have the perfect airflow through the **** pit with the driver side window down and the sun roof cracked open. Its perfect and you dont lose power from running the AC. Try it if you dont believe me and drive at ruffly 30 or 40 miles an hour. I actually believe this was stated in one fo the car magazines about 10 or 11 years ago.

 

I never even use mine... I feel like I'm hurting my FD. I might as well take it out. It gets hot as ****, though .