Anyone running an aftermarket condenser? In a hot climate?

I have need of replacing my condenser due to its propensity to leak power steering fluid. See?








OK, the pwr steering reservoir was a bit low, as well. Whilst cleaning up and trying to convince myself it "could" be the tube fitting rather than the radiator side tank that was leaking, I noticed the lower condenser iso-mounts had departed and the uppers weren't properly fitted, resulting in a bit of abrasion on the condenser tube due to chaffing on a bracket at the grill opening panel, but did not appear to be breached.

Upper:




Lower




I cut and slit a bit of rubber fuel hose and fitted to the edge of the bracket to isolate the rubbing parts and made a mental note to order some mounts. Got it all spiffed up with brake cleaner and compressed air and recruited a small child to swing the steering wheel from side-to-side with car running so I could watch the fluid spurt from the oil-cooler section of the side-tank. Nothing. Still dry on Monday morning after the 55 mi. commute to work. Monday afternoon, a blast of hot-air in the face on start-up and SHaZaaam! Now I know where that oil came from!

New condenser from the dealer is North of $1k. Aftermarket available on the web for $200 - $300. However, the car is black, and sits in the hot TX sun all day on black tarmac whilst I'm at work. I keep a pair of gloves in there to minimize discomfort of touching the steering wheel and other controls in the first five minutes or so. However, almost immediately, a blast of ice-cold air in the face - and great idle-performance and pull-down underway. I didn't want to lose that. Solution! I found a used unit pulled from a 1996 XJ-6 on the web - an outfit called "Automotix." Guaranteed for 1 year and free shipping, only $158 and it is in FTW, TX! Cool! Their website indicates they have another in Dallas, and a few up in the frigid North - Chicago, Detroit, maybe a city in Ohio, as well.
I enquired as to the possibility of picking it up from them, and the nice lady talking to me from MI opined that should be possible but wasn't sure how it would work. All their website gave for location was a zip code and that one was a burg I transit through every day to/from work. Nonetheless, seemed the easier course was to order off the web and let them ship. It arrived yesterday. I have no doubt that it was probably pulled from an X300. However, it is not the same condenser currently on my XJ. Neither does it match the drawing of the one in JEPC. Mine is an all-aluminum flat-tube serpentine affair, like the JEPC pic, and this one is a two-circuit, copper-tube-aluminum-fin construction. Haven't pulled the failed one off yet, but I'm sure it is considerably lighter than the copper one. The copper should have an edge in durability. I'm a little concerned about the performance. Back in the day....when R134a was making its intro, I worked on Ford and Chrysler sponsored retrofit programs to fit R134a systems to their 1988-1991 models with no degradation in performance. It was a substantial engineering project, and we consumed many hours of climatic wind-tunnel testing. My recollection from those days is that we could emulate the performance of Ford's 6mm tube/fin condensers with our own dual-circuit 3/8" al tube/fin models, and both were superior to any serpentine we tested. None would touch Modine's patented PF or parallel flow flat tube technology. (Can't remember which term was registered, but one was and was protected by Modine's legal dept. with great zest!)

I will contact Automotix tomorrow and inquire as to whether any of their other locations have a REAL Jag x300 condenser or not....but am disposed to give it a try, possession being 9/10ths and all...

Anyway, just wondered if anyone in a hot climate was running a dual-circuit tube/fin condenser and could offer an opinion on a/c performance, particularly at idle on high/hot/humid days?

here is my "new" one:

 

You can check with Keystone Automotive. Their aftermarket a/c condensers and radiators or widely used within the auto repair industry. The condensers are usually under the $200 mark.