The problem is you do not understand all the ramifications of doing this. The first one is simply the resale value. The typical Corvette lover takes pride in keeping their car original. They value what the engineers designed, not what someone cobbled.
Related to value, you need to understand a few details about AC systems so you can make an informed decision. The person you sell the car to will likely want to restore it to original condition. That means doing more than just throwing the parts back on. Once you discharge the refrigerant, air gets into the hoses and other parts. There is humidity in that air. Moisture combines with refrigerant to form an acid that is extremely corrosive to metal parts. We pump the system into a vacuum for at least a half hour to get that deadly moisture out of the system before pumping new refrigerant in. Under vacuum, water boils at 77 degrees and can be pulled out as a vapor.
When uninformed people leave hoses hanging, or the evaporator tubes open, the moisture that gets in can corrode those parts. Even if they do not leak, small pieces of corrosion can flake off and circulate in a restored system. All AC systems do their thing by releasing pressurized refrigerant through a very tiny port where that pressure drops and the refrigerant gets real cold. If a piece of that corrosion gets stuck in the expansion valve or orifice tube, the flow of refrigerant stops, and so does the cooling action. This is so common, almost all AC system specialists will refuse to work on systems that have been open for even a few weeks. They know there will be leaks or less than satisfactory performance, and the unhappy customer is going to be coming back over and over. Collector car enthusiasts know that, and they will not be willing to pay what the car would be worth. We also look at it as the car was attacked by a do-it-yourselfer, and we have to wonder what else was done that is not easily seen. There is nothing so sad as hopping into a car at a car show, seeing the AC controls on the dash, then finding out the AC system is not there. Specialists will not even use AC system parts from salvage yards if they cannot guarantee they came from a sealed system. Buyers who understand this know they will need to remove the heater box to replace the evaporator, and all other parts will need to be replaced. They will not risk using parts that were not sealed, and having to do the job over again.
The other problem is you are going to huge extremes that are not going to yield your intended results. Your car weighs over 3,000 pounds. The AC compressor and condenser each weight about ten pounds, and that is the weight you think is going to make a noticeable improvement in power. Gasoline weighs seven pounds per gallon. Stop on the side of the road and siphon out three gallons of gas, and you will have removed the same amount of weight.
You also need to understand that all cars from the 1960's with V-8 engines had more power at the wheels than anything from 1975, and a lot of cars from the 1990's and 2000's can outrun your car. 1975 was right in between high-power, dirty 1960's cars that got their power from burning a lot of gas inefficiently, and the current lightweight plastic cars that finesse tons of horsepower from a tiny four-cylinder through computer controls. You can toss out the seats, the dashboard, and the hood, and you still will not get the results you're expecting. In 1978, the Dodge Little Red Express pickup truck was faster than the Corvette. That was with a little small block V-8 engine. It was not because the engineers got carried away. It was because for a few years, cars fell under different emissions rules than for trucks. The car engine designers were severely limited in what they could do. Later, computer controls brought the horsepower back up, but it did for all other cars too. The bottom line is to get the power you want, or the fuel mileage, you are better off buying the car that gives you what you want. Do not destroy what you may regret later.
Monday, January 9th, 2017 AT 3:42 PM
