So I went back to the U-Pull after breakfast and got the horn bar, the heater water valve and auxiliary pump, and the trunk lock actuator (to replace my spare that got used in the SDL), all for $6.50, not bad. (The plastic fasteners for the headlights are a no charge item.) There was nothing left of the 190E's cooling system, so no spare fan switch for me. I nosed about a bit and found that the 123 they have has a trailer hitch, or at least part of one. The trunk was locked and unmolested, so I was unable to check it for toolkits, or anything else interesting like the interior component of the trailer hitch. When I came out there was a Slavic guy standing by my Frankenheap, he asked me if I wanted to sell it. Sorry, no!
Once back I resumed charging the AC. I also replaced two plastic headlight mounts, and a missing bolt on the horn support. While I was in the area I checked out the auxiliary coolant pump and found it siezed, though the one I bought at the U-Pull is not. I'll be able to swap these if I want to, but for now I just unplugged the siezed one. (It's open-circuit, so it may have burned out after siezure.) After a bunch of fooling with it, I was only getting vent temperatures of about 65oF, even with a water spray on the condensor. (The spray did seriously lower the high-side pressures and temperatures, but had at best moderate effect on the vent temperatures. Watching the water evaporate off the condensor's coils I could see that the front and back serpentine were about equally hot, so the smashing didn't occlude the front pipe, and the tops of the serpentines were hotter than the bottoms.) The high-side pressures and temperatures were a bit on the high side, and the low-side pressure was perhaps a bit low, though the temperature at the low-side fitting was not, and it matched (more or less) that of the vent air. The auxiliary fan came on periodically during this, if either the AC or engine temperature got too high. Adding more propane really didn't result in any improvement, so I stopped doing that. I decided to take a test drive, just to see how it all worked together. Windows all open, no air recirculation. After a few miles down the road things stabilized at a 59oF vent temperature, with about an 85oF outside temperature according to the instrument cluster's readout. (It might read a bit low.) Engine temperatures climbed to a little over 100oC, not unusual for one of these with the AC on. (And especially as I don't believe the main fan clutch is working. The auxiliary fan does come on periodically, depending on how fast I was driving.) When I turned off the AC, engine temperatures dropped to nominal, and the vent temperature rose quickly to 95oF. I think the heater valve must be leaking a bit, if there's a 10oF air temperature rise through the venting system. Regardless, it looks like the AC is accomplishing about a 35oF delta, which is not bad. Though 59oF vent temperatures aren't that impressive, it is just about according to spec (see the chart on 83.11-035/3 of the 201 service manual), so maybe I don't get to complain too much. Because of the front end smashing this car experienced (or perhaps not) I can't get the main fan off without removing the radiator, there's simply no clearance between the fan and the radiator. That will slow down anything I might do there. If I do have to remove the radiator that will be the time to dig into the auxiliary heating pump and the water shutoff valve. And why not then do a cooling system flush and acid flush? And new coolant... At that point in time I might as well consider replacing the condensor with the non-smashed one I got at the U-Pull. I'm not sure if/when I will do this. It would be an excellent time to experiment with refilling the fan clutch with silicone oil, but access is so poor that you would not want to guess wrong about the amount of oil to put in. The U-Pull's 190E fan clutch was still there, but it was missing the bimetallic strip on the front, so it's not complete. Not worth the price to get it for experimentation, as fan clutches are one of the things the U-Pull charges a fair amount of money for. The car drove well during this test drive, though I'm still pretty sure that the engine is less torque-y than the 200D's. It might have a tiny bit of wander in the steering, felt like possibly a toe-in problem. It certainly wouldn't surprise me considering the state I found the front end in! -- Jim
