JMZ400

Here is the suction line i had made. Keep in mind im going from EF Matsushita so my old suction line on the compressor end is much different than ef Sanden anyway. Basically the new line is an EG cocompressor end with EF nut assembly.

JMZ400

Sorry here it is...

James89DX

The nut on your new line looks new. Did they supply that? Or did you have a new EF suction line to donate the nut?

And what did they charge you to do this?

JMZ400

Here is the 97 crv compressor line combined with crx upper condenser line. He joined the two just near my hand which when installed is between the two fans near the top corner.

JMZ400

He choose to give me the new fitting, i was fine using my old one but it was done so no big deal. He charged me. $95 to do both lines. Not bad for custom work i thought.

JMZ400

Looks like i measured pretty well. So far everything bolts up.

James89DX

You now ready to vacuum and charge it?

JMZ400

No not yet. After all this im making sure i have all the correct size O-Rings. Plus had to pull all apart to flush lines etc.

JMZ400

For those who bought this same style condenser and were suprised with the top tube not being secured on both ends, I wanted to share what I'm doing with mine. Im leaving mine loose but i did split a hose down the middle and wrapped it to give it some support and avoid and rattling.

94eg!

iTrader: (2)

^Yeah I covered mine with foam-tape at the drivers side end. The only problem with this setup is that the pipe from the compressor that you connect to it will also be relatively "unsupported". I believe I had to wrap that one with some foam tape also to prevent vibration near the upper rad-support.

JMZ400

Yeah if nothing else this project is bringing to light all of the missing brakets etc. That have been missing on mine for years. There is a loop braket on the drivers side cooling fan that holds the line from the compressor to the condenser but since my splice happened there its not fitting. Ill have to come up with another solution.

JMZ400

Well i decided to remove some of the hose i put on the top tube of the condenser for fear of it acting like insulation. All lines are tight and the system is officially sealed until i can get to my AC guy. I have a set of guages but dont know what im doing with them. Also it seems to take the excitement out of seeing good cooling numbers when its only 68 degrees outside. Anyway all for now untill i can get it charged unless anyone has any questions.

James89DX

You sealed the system up including hooking up the drier already? I like to leave the caps on the drier and don't hook it up until immediately prior to vacuuming.

JMZ400

Yeah I did. Had I thought of that i would have but oh well.

sstupid

HAHA!! I bought one of those! I used it on my 1991 hatch with R12 and got great results. Unfortunately, I sold that car last month and now have a 1988 hatch which has been converted to R134A and doesn't blow cold at all. Ashamed I basically wasted such a rare part.

James89DX

Bump

So what's the latest on this?

James89DX

Well my brother and I did this over the past two days on his CRX D15B2. His system now includes a new evaporator, new expansion valve, new drier, new parallel flow condenser, and new (aftermarket) TRS090 compressor. We made the custom AC hoses/lines ourselves. Kudos to JMZ400 on this whole idea.

My brother's CRX was originally a Matsushita equipped car. We used an aluminum EG VX compressor bracket along with a stock EF Matsushita idler pulley. We also used the factory EG compressor bracket bolts as well as the compressor mounting bolts. We suspect the stock Sanden idler pulley is identical and would also work but didn't care to test that out. The stock belt would not fit so we had to use a 32" belt.

We went to a fabric store and bought some foam to really seal up around the condenser, and then painted it black because who wants green foam showing through?

Onto the pics:






















Now - it was only about 70 degrees outside when we finished his car, so we're unable to get a true how-does-it-perform-in-the-middle-of-the-summer test. However, I just re-did my entire AC system in my own EF. I stayed R12 with the notoriously unreliable Sanden TR70.

So how about this for a comparison, my OEM R12 sytem, at idle:







His CRX with the JMZ400 custom system and R134, at idle:



Very promising so far. It's supposed to get into the 80's next week so I will report back with performance updates.

JMZ400

Nice Job James. I still have yet to charge mine but after today's high of 90 it won't be long before I do. I'm glad to see it working, but more importantly hopefully a better lasting compressor and more common/cheaper refrigerant.

94eg!

iTrader: (2)

Keep in mind that your "low" temperature has more to do with the thermo-switch that's connected to the evaporator core. That switch shuts the compressor off once the core temp reaches a certain low temp. Depending on how you install your thermo-switch, you will have different max low temp. The real test is a performance test. You need to read all the variables and plot them on the chart. I made this one in Autocad so anyone can fill it out in windows paint or something.

JMZ400

94-
I think your chart is what has kept me from having mine charged. I want so much to have it done correctly, but I'm not familiar enough with the chart or charging the system to even try to explain it to some a.c. shop. Just intimidated I guess.

James89DX

An AC shop is not going to bother with that chart, almost certainly not unless you pay them extra to specifically mess with it.

An AC shop (and anybody for that matter) should simply only be charging the system by weight. If you have a 100% certain factory spec amount of refrigerant and oil in your system then that is THE one primary "must" IMO. If the system already has some charge in it there is no way to properly ascertain the charge amount other than recovering and weighing it. But a lot of places/people don't do that and instead try to charge by gauges only which will really only get you "in the ballpark".

We went with 90% of the factory R12 charge. We decided to go with 90% rather than even 95% because it will be easier to add an exact extra amount of charge than it would be subtract X amount of charge by weight (as I don't have a recovery machine).

94eg!, I have always been skeptical of that performance chart in the sense of having a car sit completely in the shade is not a test of real world performance. I have had several systems "book test" good but that did me no good when I would still be sitting at stoplights sweating. We may plot both cars on that chart just to compare/out of curioisity though, but I personally put virtually zero credence in that chart. Again - because a real world poor performing car is able to "book test" adequately from that chart.

Besides, even if this system performs no BETTER than an R12 system this is still an upgrade just to get away from the awful TR70 and for the R134. The refrigerant isn't all that big a factor for us as I have a 50 lb R12 cylinder - we primarily wanted nothing more to do with the TR70.

James89DX

Also, 90eg! -

What variable in terms of physical location would allow an evaporator switch to cycle off at a lower temp with all else being equal?

I know one of my Maximas had a TSB back in the day regarding the probe location for the evap temp switch. It would cycle off prior to getting as cool as it seemed like it could. It was originally placed pretty low on the evaporator and moving it up just an inch or so per the TSB really helped immensely. So from that, I take it lower placement = higher "low" cutoff temp?

Both of our temp sensors on my Civic and his CRX were installed into the evaps in exact factory locations using measuring tapes though.

94eg!

iTrader: (2)

I couldn't tell you how higher or lower on the core would effect the cut-off temp. I imagine if you moved it toward a warmer area of the core (maybe further from the expansion valve), it would allow the system to run colder. Of course only testing could confirm.

I'm also imagine the depth of the wire would effect the temp. I pulled some of the sensor wire back out of the evaporator housing and it seemed to allow the system to cycle at a slightly cooler temp (though I didn't measure to confirm). Of course all this low-temp stuff only counts when the system is even hitting it's low temp. The more efficient the system, the easier it will be for it to reach the cutoff. In hot weather, it's much easier to max out the system to the point it doesn't cycle at all (like 110*f, at a stoplight, fresh-air, full blower speed)

My EG's AC is less effecient than my CRX at this point. Plus the EG doesn't have tint. 110*f + blaring evening sun is still craptastic torture at stop lights. I've been toying with the idea of adding a pusher fan in front of the condenser to help boost performance when needed. It would be nice to wire it to the speed sensor to only come on at 5mph or less. lol

JMZ400

For me the chart itself illustrates that there is more to just throwing in some refrigerant and sending me down the road. I've put too much work into it to not get the charge correct. Thanks so much to both of you for your contributions to this thread. I'm glad it seems to be worth it.

James89DX

Put the car back together and got to actually drive it today. It was 79 degrees outside and 68% humidity.

Drove it around for about 15 minutes and it cycled between about 38 degrees and 42 degrees.

Stopped and idled for 5 minutes to simulate a long stoplight and/or drive through and this was the center vent reading after sitting there idling:



Almost wish it would hurry up and start getting into the 90's here already so we can realllllllllly test it.