bigchris2000

Well first off I live in west Texas and the heat sucks. I decided I was tired of sweating every time I drove my car in the summer. My car is not a daily driver, but it's nice to be comfortable when I drive.
I had searched on here about putting A/C back in a car with a B series swap, and got mixed info on the install. On to the details. My car has Hasport mounts, a half size radiator and an aftermarket traction bar, so it won't be the same for everyone that does this. I wanted my A/C to last, and wanted to do it right the first time as I do everything this way on my car.
I purchased a new compressor, expansion valve, rubber hoses, condenser, dryer, pressure switch, and o-rings and the valve stems.
I removed the evaporator and cleaned out the leaves ect. It did not appear to have ever leaked as I found no oil residue in the case. I then flushed the evaporator after removing the old expansion valve with some A/C flush from Autozone, and used compressed air to blow it out. I also flushed the hard lines on the car.
After that I started playing with fitment on all the components to make sure everything would fit correctly.

I used the Hasport A/C bracket with my install, and everything fit correctly. It is a super tight fit. My compressor pulley is about an 1/8 inch away from the frame. The only thing I don't like about this is I had to lower the engine down to get the belt on the compressor pulley and crank pulley.
Since I am using a half size radiator I mounted a 10" puller fan directly on the condenser. It was very close but fit nicely. Every thing fit correctly and I did not have to mod any of the components to fit correctly.
The only thing I worried about was the lines getting to hot, so I wrapped the lines with Thermo Tec Ultra. Between the wrap and having ceramic headers the lines do not get very hot at all after driving for an hour. I was happy about that, as the heat from the header had worried me.
After replacing all the o-rings I added a little over 4 OZ of mineral oil, as I went with R12. I then used a vacuum pump and let it run for about an hour, and let it sit overnight.
When I checked it in the morning there was no leak. So I added about 2 12OZ cans of R12.

bigchris2000

After charging My air blows about 43 going down the road and about 46 at idle. The lines look really close to the header in the pics, but they are about 3 inches away.
It was a pretty straight forward install. Here are a few pics of the finished install. I think for the extra junk under the hood it still looks ok. I know this is not really a how to, and I am not very good at doing write up's,
this is more or less just to let people know what to expect. I have to say having A/C is nice and was well worth the time and $. It honestly makes the car a lot more comfortable to drive, and I am glad I did it.

zrickety

iTrader: (1)

nice job. i need to insulate my lines...gets pretty hot under there. i also used a B-series compressor, just had to have hoses made. a little cheaper than the hasport bracket, just a different route

D16SiHatch

looks good.

i wonder if insulating the hot side is a good idea though.. it would be if one can assume the ambient temp/radiant heat would exceed the temperature of the line on its own. if i had to guess though i would think the line would not be affected in such way (unless there was a portion which was super close to the header) and that insulating it might actually make it even hotter in turn reducing a/c efficiency. could be wrong, but that's just my thoughts on it anyway lol.

bigchris2000

Thanks to the both of you. As far as the insulation on the high side, I don't think it is effecting the system in a bad way, my vent temps are good. Honda even used insulation on most of the high side line. Either way I would rather have piece of mind that a hose won't burst from heat from the header.

jlob85

Did you use a D-series crank pulley?

mattliston

I ran a header that reached within 1 3/4 inches from my AC lines in my old 90 DX civic with AC, and it lasted/worked nearly 5 years.

Just make sure the line has all of its original rubber/foam insulation, and you are fine.

If any of it is damaged or misssing, just buy those reflective hose/line wraps/blankets.

or you can opt to wrap your header, its cheap as hell. $20 bucks gives you piece of mind, and it also keeps your exhaust temps up along the header, which means the exhaust gas is traveling faster for more consistent scavenging/flow

hush22

good job!!! very clean!!! Congrats!!! You built a nice car.

zrickety

iTrader: (1)

i used a billet undersize pulley from ebay...no complaints, and super light!

2009BLACKSI

looks nice!

k20user

Hey Op,

what ac compressor are you using with hasport bracket? I have an 89 si with ac..I wanted to do a bseries swap. But I don't want to lose AC!

Also with swapping the B series can you feel the difference with turning with no power steering. With the D16a6..car is very light and easy to drive..

bigchris2000

Stock ITR pulley.
Thank you.

I used the Sanden T70 compressor.
As far as the sterring, yeah you can tell, it's a little harder to turn, but it's not hard.
Thanks.

mattliston

d16 block and b16 block weight nearly the same. only shy of a few pounds.

k20user

Thank you very much. Must be nice to have an ITR with AC. Keep it save.

xalents23

Nice A/C info. I am putting my A/C back in my b-series CRX now. And wanted to know if, you need to vacumm the system and pump freon in the system. In order to see the condensor fan and A/C compressor operating. I hooked up everything and tried to turn my A/C on and the fan would not go on or the A/C compressor. Does there need to be pressure or freon in the system in order for these components to turn on?

Any info would be great. As, I did this to my first REX back in 1996. And can't remember if, you need freon in the system for these components to turn on. Thanks in advance.

mattliston

you screw your crap up if you run it without freon

It has a safety switch. Basically if the pressure isnt high enough (not enough freon) it wont do anything.

In some states its only 20-50 bucks to charge your system