I can not find a parallel AC condensor for my 1972 corvette.

I replaced my original compressor with an Old Air Pro 6 Ten compressor and went to R13 a couple of years ago and can't get it to cool well enough. I thought I'd try a parallel condensor but can't find one. Not sure whether to just try a new serpentine condensor or try a different compressor...or get a 1973 parallel condensor (which I found on O'Reillys website), hope it fits and the mounting can be modified.

Any suggestions?

 

I would get the condenser with the largest surface area I could squish in front of the radiator. Mine is aftermarket but it works great. Here's a pic of it being installed. A tweak here and tweak there and I made it fit. You may have to fabricate and tweak ....I'll go look up the condenser part number--I got it from Amazon.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1598768198

Mine is aftermarket Hot Rod A/C but it came with quite a small condenser, and it cooled quite well for years 37° to 43°), but since I had to recharge I decided to take the opportunity to replace the condenser, evacuate, and then recharge. I'm cooling from the mid 30s to low 40s in about 80° ambient temperatures. Here is a size comparison picture:

 

Here is the one I installed.

It is a CNFP1624 AC A/C Universal Condenser Parallel Flow 16 x 24 with O-ring #6 & #8 connections. It cost me under 50 bucks last year and is about 55 bucks right now..

 

Thanks...I will check that out.

 

Yeah, check what kind of fittings, and where they are located on your 72 condenser. There are quite a lot of choices out there. As you'll note both of my connections were on the passenger side and luckily I was able to reroute the hoses I already had to fit the new condenser (and, yes, they were the same size). I also took the opportunity to reroute the hoses that run from the condenser, and from the compressor, towards the cabin such that they were farther away from the exhaust manifold.... when I first installed this system I just strung them wherever they fit which was not optimum. Just something to consider.

If you can get a measurement of the fitting sizes and the dimensions of the existing condenser (height, width, depth) then we can probably chase down a parallel flow condenser to fit in the same space.... of course you may have to fabricate the supports but that should not be too hard.

 

Carriljc have you noticed a significant improvement in the air temp after installing the new condensor? I am contemplating duplicating your efforts. Currently my car has an aluminum radiator installed by the PO, and I have noticed the condensor appears to be over an inch away from the radiator. I thought they were supposed to be right next to each other with no gaps between radiator and condensor. Thoughts?
Many thanks

 

platinummaker
I did notice improvement, but I needed to evacuate and recharge, and so I cannot say it was because of new condenser. What it does seem to do is get colder faster... it gets down to like 35° whereas when I first put it in the lowest I saw was about 37°. I first installed my Hot Rod A/C about 14 years ago and it has been quite good. About 3 years ago it started freezing up and cycle through cooling cycles... so I knew I had to do some maintenance.. I tried charging, discharging, and transferring R-134a to my other vehicles an just made it worse (I believe I ended up overcharging it, undercharging it, and introducing air and non-condensible gases into the system).... so, finally, last year I decided to evacuate and recharge.... since I was going to do that, I went ahead and replaced the condenser with the biggest one I could squish in while minimizing modifications to get it in. I am glad that I did it.
Actually, since I fabricated my own brackets I ended up with the condenser nicely close to the radiator and I put a/c sealing strips around the edges so all the air gets pulled through this condenser a little better. Some pics here from my initial installation:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/g/album/6185107

 

Big Thanks!

 

carriljc...

I found a parallel AC condensor that fit my 1972 without any necessary modifications. Mounting brackets and hose connections were perfect. Same size as the original serpentine condensor. Got it at O'Reilly's Auto: Murray Climate Control UPC # 671607162141.

Cools 100% better than the serpentine condensor did and doesn't overheat the engine putting through town like the original condensor.

 

I just ordered the Murray Condenser you listed here last night, after some searching on this message board for recommendations. Hoping the connections are as drop in as you suggested. Any further recommendations you have on this swap? Do you have any pictures of the condenser installed.

thanks

 

the larger unit looks good

 

Since my BBC core support is out, I quickly measured the opening and it is 18 hi x 29 wide.
This condensor above should fill it up pretty well.
IIRC a SBC is 1-1/2 narrower or around 27 wide.

 

I found a pic of when I bolted it down for about the final prefit.... it ended up in there snug as a bug in rug... put some foam seals around the edges, so ALL the air has to get pulled through the a/c condenser. After fabricating my own mounts it actually fit better than the one I got from Hot Rod Air since I made them "custom" so it fit snugly in there. Before when I opened to hood to latch it open the hood would touch the condenser... now it does not.

 

Thanks Much