240 Replacing the evaporator on a 93 240... how bad is it?

Greetings turbobricks.

I have been trying to fix the ac on my 93 240 since June and I have chased leaks all over the engine bay. After replacing most of the lines in the engine compartment as well as the condenser I have found one final leak at the evaporator...



How hard it is to replace on a 93? is it the same hellish nightmare as replacing the blower fan?
Can it be done without removing the whole dash and heater box?
Thank you for your insight

Short answer, no. Not if you want everything intact the way it was before you started the job.

2manyturbos said:

Short answer, no. Not if you want everything intact the way it was before you started the job.

Click to expand...

That's what I was afraid of
So it's remove the dash and the whole heater block assembly?

Yes. It's ugly. You may be able to pull the AC case back 3+ inches and slide the evaporator out the side of the AC case once all the attaching hardware is removed and still leave the heater hoses hooked up. That's about it.

With the dash out it makes the job a bunch ez r

Maybe?

nel621 said:

Maybe?

Click to expand...

Haha
I thought about it but doubt it can hold the pressure

I was trying to find tutorials and saw this one about the heater core replacement
http://http://cleanflametrap.com/heater_core/
It seems he is not disconnecting the evap and thus making his life a bit harder
Would disconnecting the evap lines give a bit more wiggle room and make it a tad easier to remove?
Also is it just better to say ?funk that? and replace the heater core as well?

I didn't want to lose the R12, that's why I pried the evap out of the loose box. You want to do just the opposite; pry the disconnected evap out without cutting loose the whole box. I see what Roy is saying: the hard line plumbing looks like it locks the evap in from sliding straight out like how the 90 and older evaps could be replaced.

When I answered your post on the Brickboard, I wasn't sure there were not means of disconnecting the '93 evap under the insulation, but now I see that's not the case. No, it isn't 5x as easy as finding acceptable used beige leather skins.

As to the "while you're in there" replacement of the heater core, I'll say this. Just the weekend before last I had to go back in this same car 18 years and 150K after replacing that heater core to replace the blower motor that I'd changed "while I was in there." I replaced the no-name aftermarket blower motor with the original Volvo motor that I pulled out "while I was in there." But the heater core is doing fine.



Edit: Just to be clear, the photo above is taken in a '91, not a '93.

^^. Exactly. Even getting the entire box out is painful. The firewall panel has to be loose in order to get the entire system to come out without damaging anything. What makes it even better is you can’t get one of the firewall panel bolts out until you get the AC box pulled back partway. It’s a really bad design.

me = subscribing to this thread

I just did the evap in a 1990, which obviously isn't the same system. But I'll say this: I removed the dash and the whole heater assembly, and used that opportunity to dissemble it entirely and remove all the old leaves, and detail clean everything. Then I sent my dash vents and ductwork through the dishwasher. If you've gotta do it, do it all. It's so nice not to have any weird smells coming out of the dash. It definitely WAS a pain in the ass. I replaced the blower motor while I was in there because it had been whining, so I needed to remove it all anyway. Did not replace the resistor for the blower motor, but I relocated it to outside of the housing instead of the stock location inside the housing, just in case I need to replace it in the near future--that means I can just pop off the center console to get to it for replacement, and I don't know of any valid reason to keep it inside the blower housing.

You'll definitely want to remove the dash, makes it much easier.

Good news: removal is not quite the PITA I feared it would be.

see: http://cleanflametrap.com/dash.html

AaronBaker said:

I don't know of any valid reason to keep it inside the blower housing.

Click to expand...

Every blower motor resistor I've ever seen was in the air flow of the fan, presumably to keep it cool.

In most modern cars, the blower motor resistor or the control module are installed inside one of the ducts in the HVAC system, close to the blower motor. This is done, so the resistor or a control module is cooled down by passing air.

Click to expand...

^^ Good point. It's right where the incoming air will flow over it.

Well, we'll see how it goes for me, then. I don't think the incoming heated air in the winter would do a very good job of keeping it cool. Obviously the cooled air in the summer is a different story.

Actually the air flowing through the center of the heater core is the cooler return side of the heater core. The resistor is placed in the middle to use that cooled center airflow.