Thanks for the replies on my first automotive A/C question. I now have my wife's car charged correctly and it's blowing air in the cabin at 40 degrees. And as we all know... Happy Wife = Quiet Life.

New topic... I am about to install a new engine in an old truck. Originally it was R-12 but the P/O converted it to R134 using an Interdynamics kit, so there is probably some R12 still in there with the 134. My kit is all 134 stuff.

Two questions:

1) I need to recover the refrigerant so I can remove the condenser for installing the engine. I don't want to vent it, obviously, but I also don't want to contaminate my 134 tank with 12. I was planning on recovering the refrigerant into 3 12oz 134 cans using dry ice, and weighing the cans to ensure I don't exceed 12oz liquid in each can, then take the cans to an approved recycler. Is this safe to do, or would I be better buying a second recovery tank for the contaminated mix? Seems like a waste to spend $60-100 on a new tank just to hold the contaminated refrigerant long enough to recycle it...


2) When it comes time to flush, evac and recharge the system, is there anything I can do to improve the cooling performance? I've heard the 134 doesn't perform well in an evap/condenser made for 12 because the 134 components have generally larger surface area etc... Are there diff size orifice tubes that I can select from, etc? Or am I stuck replacing the evap/cond (the whole system basically) for 134 stuff? (at which point I'm probably better converting back to 12!!)

Thanks all





[Edited by scruit on 08-18-2005 at 01:04 PM]