Redoing most of my AC parts, I arrive at this part. Pick up a new one that is different but am assured it will fit, as it has done on an 85. Cant quite seem to get it vertical when sitting on the connection to the condenser - body fouls the panel in front, and the mounting bolts dont line up with their mounting holes.
On careful comparison, the new one has the inlet pipe some 11mm longer, and the mounting bolts are 4mm higher up the body, and at a slightly different angle, and further out from the body (dont have pics with me). WTF? No signs of the front being damaged and repaired poorly, or of the condenser being out of place. IIRC the gap between the condenser and radiator looks normal, between 3/4 and 1" - I have tied a strip of neoprene along the top of the condenser to stop air leaking out upwards and bypassing the radiator, which is what Carl also sells.
The drier I have looks the same as Roger sells...
Any body have any suggestions please? Try to move condenser backwards? Cut the interfering panel, and drill new mounting holes?

tks
jp 83 Euro S AT 51k

 

The drier can stay in place without having its two support mounts in place (BTDT and was good for years). Also, the line going to the expansion valve has a rubber section so it's somewhat flexible. Will it not fit even with some persuasion?

Dan
'91 928GT S/C 475hp/460lb.ft

 

Dan,
The major problem is the drier body fouling the front panel - it wont allow the joint to the condenser to align straight and tighten correctly. The hose to the evaporator should not be an issue as you say.

tks
jp

 

Based on a tip that the condenser is pretty soft material, I was able to bend the connection at front bottom back with 2 fingers....So with a couple of trial fittings of the new drier, I was able to get a mm or two clearance . I also made a new mounting bracket with some L section alloy, to handle the higher mounting bolts, and than was able to pull the unit back from the front panel with it.
We tried to get the expansion valve out, but when there was talk of having to remove the hood/bonnet to get enough access to undo the fittings, I decided we would regas it with the old valve in place and see how it worked out. As soon as we started evacuation, and it pulled the same vacuum on both sides of the valve together, it looked like there were no blockages at the valve, so that was a good bet. All the pressures came up find, and suction temp got down close to zero quite quickly, so everything looks very good. Roll on summer...
jp

 

You don't need to remove the hood to remove the expansion valve. Not even on the early ones. I managed it on an '86 even without crow's foot wrenches.

Dan
'91 928GT S/C 475hp/460lb.ft

 

What can I say. Difficult to get straight access to the nuts, and two of us pulling together, were starting to round off the nuts. With the hood in place, its IMPOSSIBLE to get a wrench on straight, ie at right angles to the tubes, with any leverage available. Seeing as its recently been fully repainted, I wasnt going to take any risks with paint damage. Anyway, it came up fine, inidcating the valve is ok.
tks
jp

 

JP,

Did you do a conversion to R 134a, if so could you give us an idea of what was involved with parts, ester oil and where did you buy them?

If you left it standard what refrigerant gas did you use?

My initial investigation showed that REPCO have the new valve required to do the conversion, the receiver dryer and also sell the ester lub oil.

Regards,
Tails 1990 928S4 Auto

 

Tails,
Yes to R134.
Did at my local Porsche place (Auto Coupe, ~1km from home). He (Phil Hearn) evacuated the R12 remaining properly into a tank, pulled it down, added 50ml oil (apart from what was supplied in the rebuilt compressor), and filled with R134. He has the new end fittings which seem to screw on over the old schraders, and he has an oil can filled with ester oil, all the right O rings on hand. I just dismantled and reassembled parts as directed until I needed him to do something special. The evacuation took maybe 20-25mins to be sure it was holding vacuum, maybe 20 mins to charge with oil and gas and run the tests .
HTH
jp

 

Was there no flushing of the system?

 

No flush, just a 20-25min suck down...
jp

 

I *truly* hope that your A/C conversion works well. That said, this is exactly the situation that causes people to say that R134A conversions are crap. Your system was not flushed of all the old mineral oil. There is a quite large volume of this oil in the evaporator and condenser and it is NOT compatible with R134A. All it does in the system is rob it of cooling efficiency and may even damage the compressor. It takes mere minutes to do the flush. I'm not even talking about 25+ year old o-rings that were disturbed. Sorry but I would never go to an A/C tech that would do such a conversion job.

Dan
'91 928GT S/C 475hp/460lb.ft

 

Dan,
I take your point. The man has done quite a few conversions - he has the R134 fittings in bulk. Also he is < 1 mile from my home, I share coffee and beer with him, so there is zero risk he wont make good any problems that arise. He once had a problem with a customer S4 engine , so he rebuilt it from scratch with all new parts top to bottom, and lent the customer his own car in the meantime, no charge.
jp 83 Euro S AT 51k

 

Jpitman: not to flog anything, but I had an A/C tech at my house (not for the car) who had a truck full of "bulk items" He was funny and peculiar if you know what I mean. I asked about blocking off the rear air in my car b/c it wasn't working and he said, "Oh, don't do that, you will overpressure the system." I thought to myself, the system will necessarily be empty after capping off the lines; I know enough to put less oil, I just need a ballpark as to what percent the rear represents and then fill r12 according to pressures. My point is I don't think having boxes of adaptors is a measure of expertise. I have boxes of bolts. You seem very comfortable with this guy. I hope it works out.

 

Steve,
Very comfortable. Every time I have ever been to him for anything, even small parts for my own work, he can lay his hands on them quickly - everything has a place, and is there - tray of O rings - neoprene here, Butyl there, AC here, etc. R134 fittings, in this drawer, ester oil - that oil can. Put ALL tools away in their homes when done with them, with a wipe down. He always has a couple of 911 engines in his engine build clean room mounted on the correct frames to allow rotation(and 356, and some gearboxes); all engine builds get cleaned and replated screws, clamps, fittings etc so they look great.
Anyway, he looked up gas needs in the little book (R134 takes less than R12), used 900ml for single evaporator set up.
jp

 

I recently overhauled my S2 aircon and took the oportunity to convert to R134a. I had exactly the same problem with the new receiver/drier being slightly different in sizing to the original. After modifying the bracket that mounts it to the condensor to get the receiver/drier to attach to the pipe fittings, it touched the electric fan housing, so I had to modify its mounting as well.