Has anyone here taken apart a rover AC condenser? I'd like to use mine for a PS cooler, but I'm concerned about flow. The inlet/outlet pipes are certainly big enough to facilitate flow, but what about internally? Anyone know the diameter of the internal pipes?

If you'd asked before they all went to the scrap yard, I could have told you!

OK, along the same lines, does anyone know if the fittings on the condenser can be converted to anything normal, such as pipe or JIC, or am I going to be cutting them off and using hose clamps?

I just went out and looked at the one I have. The passages that go from side to side seem to be kinda small to get much of a flow rate through. Given that, I think you'd be better off using another "Porcupine" tranny fluid cooler.

PT

OK, once again, someone has asked a question that has piqued my interest.

What would the differences be between an A/C condenser versus a "Porcupine" style transmission fluid cooler?

The A/C condenser has 18 rows, 26.5" long (673 m/m for you inch-stick impaired folks). Each row has outside dimensions roughly 1.25" X 0.16 ". As a result, each inch of length would have a surface area of 2.84 square inches. 2.84" X 26.5" X 18 rows=1355 sq. in. surface area.

The porcupine style is about 28.5 inches long and has an OD of 1.02".
1.02X pi X 28.5"= 91 sq in.

If flow is Q=A X V with A being cross sectional area and V being flow, can we calculate the flow rates through these heat exchangers? We could, but I can't find either my Mechanical Engineer's handbook, nor my ChemE handbook...

If they are both able to provide the same flow rates, it would seem as though the A/C condenser would have an overabundance of surface area and retention/exposure time.

The fittings appear to be aluminium, 0.5" diameter. I say use aluminium compression fittings and hose barbs!

Lemme know how it works out!

PT

I micd the fittings and the pipe before them at the inlet and outlet, and they look metric to me. if memory serves the major diameter on the thread at the inlet fitting is 20mm. the outlet is smaller but equally odd (in the US anyway). I think I am going to give it a try though. My power steering is still giving me fits, and as far as I can tell it is doing it because it is getting very hot, even though I already have a small cooler in the system.

What's the worst that can happen? :flipoff2:

If you look at the larger diameter pipe right as it goes into the condenser, it's 0.488. A 0.5" aluminium compression fitting should work just dandy!

We used an old classic tranny cooler on a P/S system, and it worked great - it was on a Chevy Blazer running on 39" tires with a High flow/pressure pump, the cooler wicks off alot of P/S heat.
I thought about the condensor also, but I think the small tubes will be too much of a resrtiction, and that's probably way more surface area than you could possibly need.
You could also use a tranny or oil cooler from a 4.0/4.6RR - fairly standard fittings, large surface area too.

Good luck with whatever you choose, let us know how it turns out.

If I my, is there any downside to "too much" cooling?

I have the front of my truck off right now repairing the damage to the passenger side headlight area, and pulling the extra single tube radiator off of the donor truck and fitting to the new truck would be easiest right now.

Thx,

Scott

If I my, is there any downside to "too much" cooling?

With regard to a power steering system, probably not.
But auto transmissions seem to be happiest with warm fluid.

Well, I plumbed the Ac condenser in as a power steering cooler. Results: no go. The small size of the tubing provides too much resistance to the fluid flowing from the return on the box to the reservoir--keeps blowing the hose clamp on the inlet and spewing fluid all over the place.

Oh well, I guess it was worth a try. Now to find something about the same size as the condenser that I can put in its place, but that has 3/8 tubing...

So then, what does this cooler do? It looks non restrictive and easy to add a duplicate in its standard location, but above the existing one.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l82/lrsafari/FrontSmallRadiator.jpg

Scott

That's a trans cooler. No good for me, I want something with a lot more displacement. not only to provide more surface area for cooling, but for more fluid capacity in the system. I'll be pulling the condenser out tomorrow (hopefully), and will either have it recored at a shop, or mount the largest oil cooler I can find in the condenser's frame.

That's a trans cooler. No good for me, I want something with a lot more displacement.

Use 3 of them then.:flipoff2:

Use 3 of them then.:flipoff2:

You'd need 15 of them to get the same surface area.

Sorry Alex, I thought you were gonna have flow issues. Those 180' bends at each end kill your flow.

I think you might be surprised at how effective the porcupine coolers are, that said, somewhere around here, I have an aluminium auxiliary tranny cooler with 3/4" tubes running through it with hose barbs on each end. Perhaps your efforts would be more fruitful if put in that sort of direction.

PT

I knew there was a damn good chance it would happen too. I just had to try it, i mean it was there.. perfect in every way except one :flipoff2:

The compression fittings held BTW!

The compression fittings held BTW!

Told ya so!:flipoff2:

At least we had some success and learned a lot.

OK, now I'm thinking something like this:

That's exactly what I used for a PS cooler, only smaller. I have two identical B&M coolers that are about 12" X 8" X 1.5", one for tranny the other for the PS cooler. My PS fluid runs about 145* or so when I ran it hard a few weeks ago, the ambient air temp was just a tad over 100*.

Edit: Those coolers really are overkill in my opinion. But if you've already got them run em. They look like 40K lb capacity tranny coolers. Just like the one on my Ford that is the biggest they make. It kicks ass for towing though!

Overkill works for me :mr-t:

I don't want anymore heat issues with the PS system. I'll be putting on hydroboost in the next week or two also, which would only make it worse.

B&M coolers fit in the condenser housing with some small mods. Can even reuse the stock fans. Test fit in the truck, fits fine.

Now it just needs some fittings and a shmear of paint.

installed. #8 JIC inlet/outlet... little piece of #8 hose to couple the two units together.