MACH7

Who out there has converted their A/Cs to work on the new refrigerant? I’m looking for successful conversions that have been made for awhile, e.g. last year or prior. I am looking into converting mine using one of the kits that you can buy from the local auto parts store. So I am also, trying to understand whether one of these “do it yourself” kits is worth it and/or does it ruin your entire system? I understand that the newer refrigerant may not cool as good as the older, but would give up a few degrees of cooling to be able to do re-charging myself. When the new refrigerant first came out it was advertised that you had to minimally change out all the seals and oil, but I see that these kits only require you to remove the old refrigerant and re-charge with the new. So do the old seals work OK with the new refrigerant? Do the seals last? Does the conversion eventually ruin your compressor?

Junia

done it on my moms old dodge kcar and it worked fine. My friend who is an AC mechanic did if for me though. He said all he did was purge the old system and just put the new stuff in and that was it.

tmking66

I took mine in to a shop for conversion. They removed the old coolant and put in the r134. They did not remove or replace any seals. Charged me $100. A/C cooled for 3 weeks then quit. So, no, it did not work for me. I have not had the system checked out since then. The system did not lose the gas. It is still under pressure and the compressor is still working. It just seems like the coolant is not being circulated.

Bob Holton

Mine never did work right, but you can still get freon on ebay .

RXTbone

Changed over an Oldsmobile a few years ago - and 2 months later the compressor seized.

It's fairly easy to find R12 still...

Hades12

The problem is that the oil in the old system and the oil in the new 134 is not compatable. When mixed they create a sludge that kills the system. To do it correctly they system has to be draned and then cleaned out and then refilled. Also the Drier (I think) should be replaced.

RitcheyRch

Have heard that it doesnt always work.

fatboy7

I've done the conversion on several cars, three on RX-7s. Frankly, on most cars it works pretty good, but on RX-7s it sucks. I'm not entirely sure why, Although I'm guessing that it just has to do with several things. For one, RX-7s don't seem to be very air tight, especially with the vent valves on the side vents. You can tell it was designed to keep air moving in the passenger compartment to work descent on the cars without A/C, but it hurts A/C operation. Second, the blower fan is weak, it doesn't move nearly enough air to keep up with the leaks. Third of course is due to the coolant, which never gets the air blowing out of the ducts cool. On a good freon A/C the air out of the vents should be around 40*-50* F, so that it doesn't take much to keep the temps down to a reasonable 75*-80* F. R134a conversions I've done on RX-7's only cool the duct air to aroun 60* -- way too ineffient, at anything more than 90*F in the sun and the car is allways too hot. Last, RX-7s are all windows, radiant heat never gives the A/C a chance at keeping the car cool. Tint helps a ton.

Rutnick

I got bored back in Dec of 03 and bought a R134 kit at Wal-Mart. It had three cans of R134 with oil and a gauge. I made sure the compressor was empty of old freon by just touching the purge. It was empty. I filled it with all three cans. It has been working properly ever since. I wish my 1980 had a 4 speed blower but it doesn't.

Honestly, I feel it works and works well. I do feel it needs a 4 speed blower but my car is black with black tinted windows and a black tinted sunroof. Let's just say the car gets hot on the inside. In 4 minutes, the car is cool and comfortable on the inside. The latest venture in this was a warm 88 degree day. I was very comfortable inside the car.

My only problem with the car was a really low idle with the AC turn on. When I removed my rat's nest, I made sure and hook my A/C SV back up. It was hooked up before but wasn't working properly. With the Rat's nest gone, my idle with the AC on is around 900 and I don't have anymore lung mustard!

82transam

iTrader: (18)

my boss did mine last summer, drained what was left of the R12, filled it with r134a and it still works a year later. I rarely use it, but it works good when I do.

AsburyD

I did the R-134 conversion on my 83" and it works great, but I pulled the A/C system complete out of a junkyard special, the whole is a modular design and only took me 1 1/2 hours to pull(gotta love Mazda) so I was able to do a complete system flush and check of all components. After I had everything installed and replaced all O-rings & made sure the correct amount of oil was installed (I also replaced the Drier, a must, its your system filter and has a dessicant in it to remove the moisture) the system was then evacuated or vacuumed out for 45 min to remove air and any remaining moisture. The system was now ready for a charge, R-134 has a higher expansion rate than R12 and an overcharge can result in total system failure. The recomended ratio was 85% of the R12 charge, but we've done a number of these conversions and still lost compressors, we now use a 75% ratio and have had great success. The system I installed in my car called for 30 oz of R12 and that worked out to approx. 23 oz of R-134 and as I said at the begining it works great.
Again the most important thing is replace the drier and evacuate the system.
hope this helps.

AsburyD

It's definately worth doing( R-134 about $8.00 a lb.
R12 $70.00 a lb.) shop rate, and you have to have a license to buy R12.

Rutnick

I didn't do any of the things you did. I just charged and ran with it. If it fails, how can I say it was my 134 that did it? My compressor is umm....24 years old!

cosmicbang

To get the equivalent cooling you need a system designed for 134. When I got my FD the PO had "converted" it to R134. It did not cool as well, and I got tired of sweating and switched it back. Unless you have a leak, the cost of the R12 itself is not that big a factor in the overall picture.

AsburyD

Walmart sells the Interdynamics and Castrol kits, these kits are designed recharge an average system and can be done by just about anyone in their own garage. You'll notice one of the cans was a mixture oil and freon, this is to replace any oil that may have been lost, the cans are only 12 oz ea. so your probably OK. The only way to be sure is to hook up a set of gauges. Because of the higher epansion rate of R-134 a severe overcharge will cause too much head pressure in the compressor, resulting in failure and this invariably sends metal through the system. worse case senerio, complete system flush, new compressor,new expansion valve,new drier and system recharge.
But don't let that scare you, you said your's is working fine, sounds like the kit did exactly what was supposed to do. If you do have problems in the future, don't rule the fact that it's just plain OLD!

AsburyD

Walmart sells the Interdynamics and Castrol kits, these kits are designed recharge an average system and can be done by just about anyone in their own garage. You'll notice one of the cans was a mixture oil and freon, this is to replace any oil that may have been lost, the cans are only 12 oz ea. so your probably OK. The only way to be sure is to hook up a set of gauges. Because of the higher epansion rate of R-134 a severe overcharge will cause too much head pressure in the compressor, resulting in failure and this invariably sends metal through the system. worse case senerio, complete system flush, new compressor,new expansion valve,new drier and system recharge.
But don't let that scare you, you said your's is working fine, sounds like the kit did exactly what was supposed to do. If you do have problems in the future, don't rule out the fact that it's just plain OLD!
*junkyards are goldmine, but never put on a USED Drier*