Coupe A/C Condenser advice needed

[Cincy123]

Hello- Having trouble getting clearance for the lower 90 degree condenser fitting. I have the radiator firmly against the left (D/S) frame rail and the there is not enough clearance for the lower fitting to go between the radiator and the side aluminum panel. I've attached three pics, one showing the gap on the P/S aspect of the radiator with the side panel and one showing the fitting not clearing the side panel- I'm thinking of cutting out the lower triangular section of the side aluminum panel (photo with finger pointing to area) and I think that might do the trick. I can't see that that section is going to be needed for anything and will also give some extra clearance for the hood hinge? I'm a little reluctant to bring the radiator towards the P/S and go around the frame rail because of the clearance issues of the lower radiator hose. Any suggests of comments as best to proceed are more than welcome!

[edwardb]

That whole area is a bit rough and underdeveloped in my opinion. The kit is being shipped with unresolved issues if built using the parts as is. This is my opinion FWIW. Don't be in a hurry to mount the condenser. You will end up with the radiator to the left (driver side) about as far as it can go leaving maximum room on the right. But what you're going to find (at least I did) is the hood hinges are an interference if you don't get the condenser exactly in the right place. I still had to trim the inside corners on the hinges a bit. Especially the right side to clear the lower #6 hose connection. Then you're going to be removing aluminum in order for the hinges to clear when the hood is all the way up. I didn't finalize my condenser placement until after I had mocked up the hood hinges and nose placement. That's when you're also going to find you have to make a pretty big cut in the bottom back edge of the nose to clear the condenser when the hood is open. Didn't find that mentioned in the manual either. Oh and BTW, unless they fixed it, the angle on the hood hinges doesn't match the fiberglass nose. Some guys cut them and re-weld. I don't weld so made spacers. Personally, I found the nose hinging and mounting along with component placement around the nose probably the most challenging part of the build. Turned out great. But sweated a bunch to get there. Wish you luck with yours.

Full disclosure. When all was said and done, I bought a new condenser. A Vintage Air 03263-VUC. It was $150, but I was so far underwater with my budget I just moved on. At 14" tall x 24" wide x .83" thick it fits better and just by appearance is clearly a better quality part. My FF condenser was pretty loose in the box and had a bunch of damaged fins. FF might have replaced it. But I didn't want another one like that one so just bit the bullet. Not saying that's the only solution because it's not very nice. I hate paying for parts twice. Just saying what I did. Was near the end of the build and I wanted to get the thing mounted and fitted around everything else without any further delays or issues. My #6 bottom hose is inside the radiator tunnel. The #8 top hose is outside the radiator tunnel and attached to the frame rail going back.

[Cincy123]

Thanks Paul. In your experience at the end of the day did the vintage air condenser give you better clearance for the lower 90 degree fitting? Did you end up with the drier being mount in the recommended location per the manual? Thanks

[edwardb]

Thanks Paul. In your experience at the end of the day did the vintage air condenser give you better clearance for the lower 90 degree fitting? Did you end up with the drier being mount in the recommended location per the manual? Thanks

To your first question yes I believe so. Once I had the radiator over as far as it would go. But to be honest, it's been a couple years now and I don't remember every exact detail. I gave up on the kit supplied condenser pretty early on for the reasons already noted and I was able to get it the Vintage Air unit to fit with the lower hose inside the tunnel. The kit supplied one might do that too. But I found the size overall just didn't fit great.

For the drier, I mounted it in the general location they showed. But further forward. And vertical vs. horizontal. Their location interfered with where I ended up putting the Coyote PCM. In this case, a picture I had tweaked my memory. :rolleyes: This picture is a little close. But you can see the location by the intersection of the chassis rails. https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=99218&d=1545151181

[Cincy123]

Looking at the Vintage air dimensions versus the supplied condenser the difference in the length is almost two inches shorter for the vintage air, that should allow me to get the lower fitting positioned in the tunnel. With radiator all the way to the DS the gap is just enough to slide the lower fitting in between the radiator and the tunnel. The kit supplied condenser is essentially the same length as the radiator so the shorter vintage air might be a good bet. I’ll probably order one from summit this week and check it out. Thanks for the tip.

[lewma]

Looking at the Vintage air dimensions versus the supplied condenser the difference in the length is almost two inches shorter for the vintage air, that should allow me to get the lower fitting positioned in the tunnel. With radiator all the way to the DS the gap is just enough to slide the lower fitting in between the radiator and the tunnel. The kit supplied condenser is essentially the same length as the radiator so the shorter vintage air might be a good bet. I’ll probably order one from summit this week and check it out. Thanks for the tip.

Cincy

Please update this thread with how it works out. I'm nowhere near that point in my build but I'll definitely consider the same part if it works out better than the kit supplied condenser.

mark

[jwhit]

i had to nocth my hinge out as well or it hit fitting when nose was opened also after the fact i was told from ffr tech that bottom hose should run outside frame instead of inside metal as shown in book
the condencer ffr sent was 26x12 i decided to change mine and bought a 24x14 which let me slide it over closer to right side and moved fitting back and down so it cleared hinge by a mile
151688

[JohnMac]

As Paul mentioned above, “That whole area is a bit rough and underdeveloped in my opinion. The kit is being shipped with unresolved issues if built using the parts as is.”
We’ve been working on a gen2 coupe since July 2020 and have found a lot of areas underdeveloped and issues unresolved and to make matters worse, FF5 is somewhat unresponsive… sorry guys but it’s true. Our VintageAir unit was from 2012 and it required a bit of fiddling and fabrication to get it to even fit under the dash. We did a lot of mocking up before hardwiring anything and I’m still trying to decide on the cooling fan operation. Right now I have on a separate switch. We’ve installed the blower/fan unit, run the hoses, finally got the compressor mounted but have yet to charge the unit. I found the fan was hitting the housing (it’s held in place with a hose clamp and some rubber dampers) corrected by sliding it up in the housing. As for the condenser, it’s mounted and secured but we did rearrange the lower radiator inlet/outlet? To give us a straighter path to the H2O pump. We have a hydraulic hose shop up the street and found smaller diameter ac hose and fittings. I’ve a box of original VintageAir hose and some fittings if anyone’s interested. As for the ductwork, that’s another conundrum- 5 outlets and very little room under the dash to run them. As the car will never be a daily driver we may even leave the windows off as others have done.
One other area of concern has been the windshield- right now is mounted on foam weatherstripping with NASCAR type clips holding it in, looks pretty cool!

[Cincy123]

Per Paul's recommendation I ordered a replacement condenser from Summit Racing (Vintage Air 003263-VUC). This condenser is not as wide as the one supplied with the Coupe kit and allows the lower fitting to slide nicely between the radiator and the tunnel aluminum. As Paul suggested I decided to set this aside for now to do the final mounting a bit further down the road.151912

[Automan]

As Paul mentioned above, “That whole area is a bit rough and underdeveloped in my opinion. The kit is being shipped with unresolved issues if built using the parts as is.”
We’ve been working on a gen2 coupe since July 2020 and have found a lot of areas underdeveloped and issues unresolved and to make matters worse, FF5 is somewhat unresponsive… sorry guys but it’s true. Our VintageAir unit was from 2012 and it required a bit of fiddling and fabrication to get it to even fit under the dash. We did a lot of mocking up before hardwiring anything and I’m still trying to decide on the cooling fan operation. Right now I have on a separate switch. We’ve installed the blower/fan unit, run the hoses, finally got the compressor mounted but have yet to charge the unit. I found the fan was hitting the housing (it’s held in place with a hose clamp and some rubber dampers) corrected by sliding it up in the housing. As for the condenser, it’s mounted and secured but we did rearrange the lower radiator inlet/outlet? To give us a straighter path to the H2O pump. We have a hydraulic hose shop up the street and found smaller diameter ac hose and fittings. I’ve a box of original VintageAir hose and some fittings if anyone’s interested. As for the ductwork, that’s another conundrum- 5 outlets and very little room under the dash to run them. As the car will never be a daily driver we may even leave the windows off as others have done.
One other area of concern has been the windshield- right now is mounted on foam weatherstripping with NASCAR type clips holding it in, looks pretty cool!

Hey, do you still have that box of Vintage hose? Is the Number 8 hose available? Mine is too short by 4 inches for the top #8 fitting. Want to put a service fitting in to extend it but i need more hose. That specific hose isnt available where i live in Ontario canada.