My DeLorean's A/C hasn't worked since I bought it. All of the original R12 had leaked out by the time I came to own it in 2011. A couple of years after I bought it, I flushed out the original system w/ mineral spirits and converted the fittings over to R134a. I had working A/C for a very short driving season that year before all of the refrigerant leaked out. I added some leak dye on the next refrigerant fill up, but even then, I couldn't ever find the source of the leak. I also suspected a problem with the original compressor at the time and replaced it with a new unit.
I concluded that the original A/C hoses were likely allowing the refrigerant to seep out, or I had a potential problem with the evaporator in the A/C housing. I knew that at some point, I would need to overhaul my entire system if I wanted reliable A/C.
Earlier this year, I dove into a project on the interior of my DeLorean that involved removing much of the interior, including the dashboard, and I thought that if I was going into it this deeply, now would be the best time to remove the A/C unit housing and include that as part of the interior overhaul. While doing that, I should replace the A/C lines with a modern replacement, the cooling fans, the evaporator, condenser, and everything else on the system, minus the new A/C compressor.
My engine cooling system was in great shape with the exception of the radiator of unknown age. I had replaced all of the cooling hoses and pipes a few years ago, including a new water pump, and the radiator was the only unsure thing remaining. I didn't know if it was the original radiator or if it had been replaced by a previous owner at some point. I decided that I didn't want to dive into the front end again like this for a radiator replacement, so I thought it best to replace it as well.
I already wrote extensively about the A/C unit housing restoration, which you can find here. The rest of the A/C overhaul was pretty straightforward. The condenser came out with the radiator. Here are some photos of that during the process:
The hose connections on the condenser came off much easier when it was lowered and more accessible with a large wrench. There was quite a bit of nasty brown fluid that came out of the hoses and the condenser once I had them disconnected.
While I was in there, I chose to replace my original cooling fans with modern replacements. Might as well, right? A little before and after action:
These fans mounted right into the original mounting holes on the fan shroud, which in turn mounted right up to the new radiator.
Getting the accumlator/dryer out was definitely the hardest part of the whole job. As anyone that has looked at the A/C dryer, there is little room to work. I couldn't get the connection loose coming from the evaporator to the dryer and didn't want to hack up the fiberglass underbody in order to create more space, so I whipped out the Sawzall and cut off the connection on the dryer in order to free it up. Even with the dryer out of the way, that connection took a lot of force to finally come free.
I then moved to the A/C lines and chose to route the new lines the same way the original lines were ran. I cut off the hoses near the compressor, taped the end of the old line to the new line, then fished the old lines out while the new lines but pulled into place.
The new lines were from DeLorean Industries and don't come with any connections pre-installed, which makes it easier to fish the new lines in between the underbody and frame. The kit uses a clamping system that I had to watch a video on YouTube in order to figure out, but seems really solid. I really like how the hoses are longer than needed and you trim them down to length, which provides extra flexibility for any changes in the routing.
I routed the line near the steering shaft further up to avoid any rubbing as the steering shaft rotates around. This route seemed like the best option to avoid future problems:
The only issue I encountered with all of the new parts was with the new condenser. One of the four nuts on the mounting bolts was stripped and wouldn't come off so I could connect it to the radiator. I contacted the vendor (DMCH) and they promptly sent me a new mount at no charge, which fixed the issue after I swapped the parts.
Winter is setting in now, so I won't have a chance to charge the all-new A/C system until next year. I'm sure there's a fitting or connection somewhere that I'll need to snug down, but everything is back together. I did get the car running so I could burp the new radiator and all of that is also back together and working great so far. The new fans also came on when the car got up to temp. They sound surprisingly quiet compared to the original fans. I also made sure that they were wired up correctly to pull air instead of pushing air back towards the radiator, which other owners have mistakenly done before. All checked out there and I fully expect to have many uneventful heating and cooling years ahead with this huge and pricey overhaul.
Speaking of price, here's a rough rundown of what some of the key items cost in 2024:
- Radiator: $300
- Cooling fans: $200
- Condenser: $200
- Evaporator: $220
- Heater core: $190
- A/C hose kit: $670
