Factory AirCon refrigerant conversion

[Zcoota]

Howdy,

My County has the factory fitted aircon isn't working really well which sounds typical. The compressor kicks in as required and I can see a trickle of refrigerant running through the spyglass so I assume its still holding some charge. Before I pull it all out I was going to have a crack at making sure all the other pneumatics and controls are working but I had a couple of questions before I subject myself to what I think is going to be a painful exercise;

1) Is a trickle of refrigerant normal or should I see a gush of the stuff in the spy glass ?
2) Am I right to assume that the fact the compressor still kicks in suggests there's enough charge ?
3) Is it an expensive exercise to convert to the current refrigerants ? I did some online research that suggested not but the local aircon guy is telling me I need a new dryer, loads of new seals and new compressor ? Is it really such a big deal ?

If it turns out to be bigger than Ben Hur I'm just going to pull it out and put a minibus system in but wouldn't mind keeping it stock if I can.

Cheers,

Mark

[FisherX]

You could go for the Hychill minus 30 option. Although a lot of people are scared of it as it is a hydrocarbon and as such flammable. You only need about 400grams of it and I've used it in all my old cars including a D2 V8 and with such a little amount in the system the risks are very low.

And the best part is you can do it yourself and still get it over the counter at Bursons for about $50 a can (plus you'll need to get the valve for the can and some fridge gauges)


HyChill - Minus 30

[BradC]

You could go for the Hychill minus 30 option. Although a lot of people are scared of it as it is a hydrocarbon and as such flammable. You only need about 400grams of it and I've used it in all my old cars including a D2 V8 and with such a little amount in the system the risks are very low.

And the best part is you can do it yourself and still get it over the counter at Bursons for about $50 a can (plus you'll need to get the valve for the can and some fridge gauges)


HyChill - Minus 30

You can. You should really properly recover and evacuate the old refrigerant first though. I happily use Hychill (or my own version anyway) in anything that doesn’t have a variable displacement compressor. I haven’t had reason to put it in something modern though, they all have sufficient capacity and condenser to use r134a which always sucked royally in an R12 conversion.

[p38arover]

One of the former AULRO members, Ladas, used to work for a company that did hydrocarbon A/C systems. I haven't seen Ladas on here for a while. He was down in Kyabram.

Hmm, I just checked and Ladas was on here on 29th Feb this year. He'd have a lot of useful info on hydrocarbon refrigerants.

[scarry]

For me,i would just repair it and fill it with R12,as i have recently done to my brothers D1.

There is still some around,that is if i look hard enough in the shed where there is bottle of it,just over half full.

For you,better with Hychill,R134a may drop off the capacity of the system,when you need it the most,that is on the hottest days.

[Zcoota]

The more I look at it and think about it the more I'm leaning to pulling the whole thing out and just going with a aftermarket evaporator in the cabin, the standard system looks like it was designed by a dozen people without any of them talking to each other.........these cars are so much fun but so infuriating at times

[PhilipA]

My bloke Coastal cool Air at the Central Coast , much to my disappointment does not use Hychill any more.

After 6years my a/c still works perfectly so I said I will wait for it to fail before I go back to R134A.
Regards PhilipA