Dave M

I removed the A/C compressor from my car. To reduce as much weight as possible and clean up the engine bay as much as possible, I'd like to remove the evaporator. Is that possible or is it needed to keep the radiator in proper position?

AgFormula02

iTrader: (13)

nodnarb481

iTrader: (3)

It's removable. I just did mine, actually. Was quite a mess.

I used a very large pry-bar and a hammer to take care of most of the box. Not something I had any interest in saving so I wasn't very gentle with it. Once it was mostly broken off, I used a cut-off wheel on my angle grinder to take care of the remains to get it flush enough to fit my block-off plate over it. LOTS of fiberglass dust.

I had the added luxury that I was replacing my head-gaskets. So at this point, only the block was in the engine. If you have the rest of the motor in there, it's going to be very tight.

*edit: A pair of lineman's pliers was also useful if you want to keep the mess down. I used it for places I didn't have clearance to get the cutter in and just grabbed and pried piece by piece.

shbox

I think the OP meant condenser, since he mentioned radiator mounting. The evaporator is on the firewall.

nodnarb481

iTrader: (3)

Good catch. Yep that's easy to remove too. Though it adds nothing too the amount of hand space you have in your engine bay since it is between the radiator and the front bumper.

biketopia

iTrader: (5)

But it does weigh a few pounds, and if it's clogged up with years of road debris its removal can only help in multiple ways. I did the same thing, removed outer box with hammers and cut of wheels, fabed a block off, and removed the condenser. Just make sure when you remove it you get the air dams and deflectors back in place so the air goes over and through the radiator not around it.

Dave M

Sorry, yes, I did mean the condenser. I always get the two confused. I'd like to remove as many A/C-related parts as possible to free up weight and room under the hood. So far I've removed the compressor, the accumulator and the refrigerant lines. I'd like to remove the condenser and evaporator, if possible.

biketopia

iTrader: (5)

No worries, terms get crossed all the time, your evaporator is gone if you removed the engine bay box. If you're not going to keep heat then you can remove the interior HVAC box and free up more room under the dash and shed some weight. if you remove the heater core you need to loop the lines together to keep coolant flowing like it should. You can get a short piece of hose to go from the outlet to the inlet on the engine/water pump. (I'm not 100% where the heater core lines hook up on the engine as I've swapped to a gen1 SBC in my car.)

Dave M

I haven't removed the engine bay box yet, but I'm leaning towards doing that if it won't cause unintended consequences. I'd like to keep the heat, at least for now. It gets pretty cold with the t-tops off sometimes!

nodnarb481

iTrader: (3)

If you do remove the heater hoses, you loop the water pump back into itself. 3/4" on one side, 5/8" on the other. They sell an adapter for those two sizes at any autoparts store and it is specifically for heater hose. I have been told that you can stretch 5/8" over 3/4" so it may not be needed. However, I haven't gotten that far yet. I'll let you know tomorrow lol.

Dave M

Another question: Does anyone know what the dimensions are of the three bolts on the compressor? I'm missing one and need to replace it?

nodnarb481

iTrader: (3)

1/2" I just took em out yesterday. If you take out a 5/8" while you're in there. Put it back. Not sure what that was for..

As always, shbox has a fantastic picture of it:
http://shbox.com/1/accy_brkt.jpg

Don't forget the two in the back. I've heard mixed reviews on the level of difficulty involved in removing the compressor. I have longtubes and I already removed all the piping for the heat and a/c so that most likely made a difference but man it was really easy.

biketopia

iTrader: (5)

If you're going to delete the AC, do it all the way. Cleans up and makes the engine bay sooo much nicer, plus all the room. Here's a thread with some good info on deleting the engine bay box and keeping heat. The plate SRZ posts up is pretty slick, I wish I'd of known about it before I spent the time messing with my interior box and fabbing my own block off.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/lt1-lt4-m...t-defrost.html

nodnarb481

iTrader: (3)

ah.. looks like he added some insulation. That woulda been wise of me.. Maybe I'll go back and add that in.

biketopia

iTrader: (5)

Just something to seal it up a little. I used some non hardening pliable seam sealer I had laying around.

nodnarb481

iTrader: (3)

I'm struggling with this part. I'm not seeing anything obvious under there that I can move around. What am I missing?

biketopia

iTrader: (5)

They're just little rubber inserts/flaps that would help deflect the air through everything, nothing too wild.