ac condensor

alienturtle

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Need to order a a new ac condensor. They thow 2 different styles. A tube and fin design and serpitine? Style. By the looks of the pic they mount the same. Would one be better than the other? I'm pretty sure mine is a tube and fin as you can see the tubes coming out the side. Thanks sorry for spelling on my phone
 

The Warden

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Hey!

I can't say for certain, but my guess is that the serpentine setup is designed for R-134a and will therefore be more efficient. Hopefully someone who's had real-world experience will give a more definitive answer, but in lieu of a more solid recommendation, I would go with the serpentine...

BTW, I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to get back to your PM; been too busy with work and whatnot...I'll try and answer soon after I get home, but thank you again for your response ;Sweet
 

RLDSL

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If what they are calling serpentine has wide flattened out tubes, then that is the one that you want
 

alienturtle

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Ok thanks for the info. But can I ask why. I'm pretty sure it had a tube and fin on it before and it seemed to work ok. Why is the serpetine type better. Will it bolt in the same place. The local parts store is the one showing 2 different types. Rockauto only shows a tube and fin. Thanks for the help looking forward to an answer
 

icanfixall

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Serpentine looks like its better at cooling the freon... On the down side if any crap got blown into it the condenser would have to be replaced...
 

RLDSL

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I started playing around with alternative condensers a while back for these things, first it was the paralell flow jobs which are suposedly the bees knees, which are still round tube , but about half the diameter of the stock tubes and about 2-3 times as many in a stacked pattern to allow more surface area exposure between the refrigerant to tube wall to flowing air > I have one of these on my crew cab with the dual ac system( rear air ) and it works very well , but in the constant search for something better with my regular AC supplier ( Jon at www.nostalgicairparts.com , and he can get you top quality condensers for these things that will have you blowing snotcicles , He keeps the part numbers handy for these trucks as when we were working these things up, he kept the numbers handy for you guys) but later we tried the serpentine condensers on some others and they cool WAY better than the parallel flow condensers as there is no dead flow in the middle of the tubes as there is even with the smaller round tubes of the parallel flow jobs ( and the massive dead flow of the stock ones ) the thin tubes of teh serpentine condensers allow for all of the refrigerant to get maximum air flow across it throughout the entire pass, it doesnt get any better. ( very similar to the plate and fin tranny cooler design that works so great and much better than the tube and fin )

If you combine a serpentine condenser with a VOV you should have no trouble at all getting 33-35 deg duct temps
 

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