working on putting a full sized condenser in my 92 eg.

i bought a universal 13x25" condenser for my 92 civic. thats about twice the surface area of the stock condenser.

only issue is the drier to condenser line and the pressure switch.

i will try to use a swagelok fitting on the aluminum line, but if that doesn't work i am going to use a 89-91 civic drier or a DA drier and remake the hose from where it conects halfway under the front of the car for the drier to evaporator line.

people say all the time its not worth it, but once i DO it i will show all how i did it and how it works better. those little 12" condensers are bs.

p.s., if anyone already has done this, let me know.

 

got the condenser, waiting on the hose ends and hose, then off to the radiator shop to get a few hoses made.

 

condenser mounted in the car. fan mounted. can't make it to hose shop till wednesday. then i should be able to provide pics... :D

 

hoses mounted.

vacuumed

recharged

40 degees at the vents on level 4 speed, on recirculate, at idle in the driveway after 10 minutes...

:D

low side pressure: 48
high side pressure: 170

brand new evaporator, expansion valve, compressor, and drier.

u mad brahs?

 

where did you get the universal 13x25" condenser? I was thinking about using a 02-04 civic condenser for my 97 civic ex, because I think I just have to make 1 hose longer or i can use the 02-04 civic hose from compressor to condenser. I am going to look at the condenser it looks like the drier line will work because it's on the same side maybe

 

Outside temperature?

 

outise temp was 85 degrees.

not hot, and it was night, i will keep everyone updated. i had a working stock system and i will say it Is better than the small condenser.

BUT ouside temp was not very high...

this morning it was so cold it felt hot almost, like burning cold.

 

i got the condenser off ebay, and took the stock fan off, and dremmeled off the mounting tabs on one side of the stock condenser then put the aftermarket one behind the stock one and in front of the radiator. then had the high side hose remade to go to the upper fitting on the universal condenser, then the output hose from the aftermarket condenser goes up to the input for the stock condenser so i used my same drier and only hacked up my stock high side line.

i will add, i DID change the evaporator, so it probably helped 2-3 degrees because the other one was clean on the ouside, but very dusty and dirty down in the fins.

it wont get much colder than 38-40 period, but the whole point is to keep it working like it was before even when its 100 outside.

with the stock condenser it would get cold up to about 85 degrees ,then lose its cooling capacity from there...

plus it did hold about 1.5 cans of hc-12a which is the equivalent to 25-30oz of r134a. i dont know.... since it was a custom setup i just went by pressures. but my point is, there is more refrigerant, so that will help with the heat transfer also.

 

No offense but sounds like something else was wrong. Mine is still pretty cold at 100+ temps we had here in the south with a regular size condensor. At 85 degrees out (today) I had to turn off the A/C it was so freaking cold (16 year old Civic never charged or had A/C work done).

 

yeah but it's 114 every day of the week 80+ at night. i ride my motorcycle in that but some times when the civic goes out it's too hot, kids in the back. every degree helps

 

How much did this cost you??

 

my car has:
new compressor
extra condenser
fan
custom pipes
new evaporator
expansion valve
new o-rings
drier

about 500$

but take into account i also wasted 50$ on r134a during that time, and then got the hc12a stuff as well....

yesterday when it was 92 degrees out, my car was idling at 40 at the vents on level 4 and when i drove it, i had to turn it down to level one where it was blowing out 29 degrees....

rediculously cold, however i had been parked in the shade, when the car is hot 120+ inside from sitting in the sun, it takes 10 min or so to get it below 45 coming out the vents on level 4

 

define pretty cold.....

i'd say mine was pretty cold with fog blowing out of the vents...

 

Ik im like 12 years late but im going to do this. I’m glad someone else has seen the problems with the tiny condenser and changed it accordingly.