96 Cobra AC Condenser Mod

12-3-08: New AC Condenser

The 96 Cobra has a bad reputation as an overheater.  There has been a lot of mis-information about the cause and cure of this overheating, but one thing is a fact as you can see from the evidence below.  The AC condenser in the 96 Cobra has very dense fins, and the AC condenser has much a less dense fin count.

I bought a new 97 AC condenser, part number F7ZZ-19712-BA, from Tousley Ford.    They are obsolete, so if you want one, you should probably grab one soon.  I have read many places on the internet that the cooling problems of the 96 Cobras was finally determined to be due to the AC condenser being too dense to get enough air through to the radiator.  I measured 16 fins/inch on the new condenser as compared to 22 fins/inch on the old one.

Per SWooP317 on Corral, Vistion makes an aftermarket AC condenser that is identical to the 97 Ford unit.  They use the Motocraft 97 Cobra part number YJ396.  He bought his from Action AC on-line, part number 24-31073.  It has 15 fins per inch.

Here is a high res picture of the new condenser:

The shop manual strongly recommends that you replace the AC accumulator/dryer whenever you replace the AC condenser, so you should seriously consider getting one of those, too, which I did.  You will also need a few ounces of new AC oil.  Of course, they only sell it by the quart.

Before you start the project, you should take the car to an AC shop to have the refrigerant removed.  They can recycle the refrigerant, and you will not help to destroy the ozone layer.

4/16/09:

If you have a stock radiator, you do not need to drain the coolant and remove the radiator.  You just remove the radiator hold-down bolts and tilt the radiator toward the rear of the car to get the room needed to get the AC condenser out.  But if you have a big radiator such as my Fluidyne, you will need to drain the coolant and remove the radiator.  Here is the engine compartment with the radiator out:

Here are two side-by side comparisons of the stock AC condenser on the left and the new 97 AC condenser on the right. You can really see the difference in fin density between the two, especially in the close-up picture.

I used a cheap AC/Fuel line disconnect tool from Kragen to unhook the AC hoses from the condenser and the accumulator/dryer.  Per the shop manual, you need to add 1 oz. of new AC oil to the AC condenser before you reinstall it.  Here is the new condenser installed:

And the big Fluidyne radiator back in:

I replaced the old accumulator/dryer as it says to in the shop manual.  I drilled a hole in the old unit, drained the mineral oil into a measuring cup and found there was about 3/4 oz. of mineral oil in it.  I poured 3/4 oz. of new AC mineral oil into it and installed the new one.  Don't forget to lubricate all O-rings with new AC mineral oil before assembly.

I refilled the coolant and burped the system, but it is running a tiny bit warmer than before, so I think I need to burp it again.  I hate it when I need to drain the coolant on these cars.  Grrr.   Burp, burp, burp.  The car is running cool now.

Took the car down to the AC shop to have it tested and refilled.  Everything is working great.

9/6/11:

It seems that you can no longer get 97/98 AC condensers anywhere.  Mustang Matt tells me that you can now use an 03/04 condenser with 03/04 AC lines and it will work fine with your old condenser.