Questions about air conditioning in a swapped Ti

[FastGuys]

I'm doing an M52B28 swap into my Ti. I have almost every single part accounted for and recently tried to put in the AC lines. As far as I can tell, there are only 2 types of AC line sets, one for a 318 and one for any of the 6 cylinder e36's with denso compressors. I picked up a set of AC lines off of a 6 cylinder e36. I got the line to and the line from the compressor. Theline going from the compressor to the condensor fit just fine. It was a hair short, but that was expected since the Ti swap puts the motor back further.

Now, the issue I'm finding is with the fitment of the Line that goes from the compressor to the firewall. The line lines up just fine, but the part of the connection block that has an o-ring that slides into the aluminum block on the firewall seems just a tad too large. I've had difficulty measuring the mating OD and ID with a caliper with any degree of accuracy. However, I've spent over an hour trying to get these two parts to go together and it's just not happening.

Is there a special requirement or modification here that I am missing? Do I need to braze the fitting from the Ti line onto the denso line?

I hope this is not a common question. I tried searching, but the keywords AC, A/C, and "air conditioning" yielded no information in the swap forum.

I appreciate any help you guys can give. I'm darned close to having this thing all buttoned up...getting pretty excited.

thanks!
~russ

[cooljess76]

Hey Russ, I swapped the lines from my M3 onto my ti with no problems. They basically just plugged right into the firewall the same way the old ti lines did. Haven't hooked them up to the A/C compressor yet, but their orientation looks spot on. My M3 was a '98 and my ti is a '97 if that makes a difference. Perhaps they changed the fittings after a certain year?

[FastGuys]

Sorry, I meant to post up some pictures to help illustrate the issue. Here they are.

[FastGuys]

Originally Posted by cooljess76

Hey Russ, I swapped the lines from my M3 onto my ti with no problems. They basically just plugged right into the firewall the same way the old ti lines did. Haven't hooked them up to the A/C compressor yet, but their orientation looks spot on. My M3 was a '98 and my ti is a '97 if that makes a difference. Perhaps they changed the fittings after a certain year?

That is what I'm wondering, hopefully someone can chime in.

Can you take a look at the pics I posted and see if you notice differences between what I've got and what you had?

One thing I did notice was that the fitting from the Ti had a black plastic seal on the end and that the 6 cylinder line had no such seal. Now, I was thinking that maybe the 6 cylinder seal didn't have it because it's the low-pressure line and maybe it's only needed on the high-pressure line?

Unfortunately, since I purchased the car as a shell, I didn't get it with the two AC lines going to/from the compressor, so I don't have anything on-hand for comparison purposes.

~russ

[cooljess76]

It's been a long time since I've had it apart, but I do seem to recall that black plastic ring on the end of the fitting. If I'm not mistaken, both cars had it. I gave my old aircon lines to a member here, can't remember who it was, but theirs had a leak. This is what my current setup looks like. You can see mine has a testing/fill valve on it. I'm fairly certain the one I removed did also. So comparing your pics with mine, there was definitely a change somewhere along the way. The illustrations on realoem are inaccurate and don't really show the lines very well, but it does state there was a change after 06/1997. Both my ti and my donor M3 had post 6/1997 build dates. BTW, I wrapped my lines with aluminum tape to better insulate them from the exhaust manifold.

[BoostLee]

that's strange, my 95 M3 lines bolted right up to my 95 Ti.

[cooljess76]

Originally Posted by BoostLee

that's strange, my 95 M3 lines bolted right up to my 95 Ti.

Not strange at all, both of your cars were '95's. They changed the lines in 06/97.

[Shellback]

I have the same issue. The a/c line that goes to the firewall, specifically the one closest to driver's side, does not match up.
The a/c line is from a 97 M3, and of course the 2 orifice a/c firewall "receptacle" is from the ti.
I tried using the ti a/c lines. It obviously matches right up to the firewall, but it does not match up to the a/c compressor from the S52.
I was thinking of taking both ti and M3 a/c lines to an a/c shop and maybe they can do some welding/fabrication to swap the compressor side connections.