A/C Converted to R134 - Go Back to R12?

There are a lot of cans of R-12 on Ebay. Illegal yes but still just the same. Tony is very adamant about following the letter of the law. I would advise following his instructions. That said, I'm about tired of the govt telling me what to do, when to do it, and now under Obama...when to die.

You can drop our compressor from the engine without breaking the system. Then this summer (spring) you can better tell if it works ok.

There is a r-12 substitute called Freeze 12 that is supposed to work. If you read the ingredients it is partly 134. There is also a product called envirosafe that your system doesn't need to be evacuated to use.

Mine was 134. Long story short...the pressures were good, still no cool air. I had to remove the evaporator and clean the expansion valve (that is not available anywhere...unless you buy the evaporator). It all disassembles easily so I cleaned it. I removed everything but the condenser and flushed and cleaned everything. I rigged up something to flush and clean the condenser in the car. The compressor was drained and flushed and cleaned. Then reassembled, evacuated and filled with R-12 where I get about 35 degree air. R-12 uses a different oil than R-134 and they are not compatible with each other. That is the issue. But yes, 134 does not have the cooling qualities and the pressures will be slightly different. The pressures in the book are for R-12.

Now if you are having problems at idle on a hot summer day, it is because you can not get enough air thru the condenser sitting in traffic. I installed a Turbo auxillary fan that mounts out front the radiator. The bolt holes are already there. Make sure you get the mount. I ran the switch inside so i just flip it on. Oddly, it never got that hot last summer that I needed it...or I was never stuck in traffic.

BTW..ever get to talk to the guy in Farmer's Branch?

Well, on the first page of "E-Bay" i found a lot of stuff misrepresented as R12. The one that was REAL CFC-12 required you present a copy of your license to get it delivered.
There was stuff that claimed to be R12 which indeed was 'marine horn propellant' and there was a lot of stuff which was NOT CFC12, but a claimed substitute which required converting the system...

There was the odd can of 'R12 from the garage'... and a real deal of a 30# can for only an opening bid of $700---I'm sure that's cost-effective.

I stand by my original statement: If you have a problem with your R134 converted system chances are GREATER THAN NORMAL that the problem is with YOUR SYSTEM and not the refrigerant inside it.

You will convert back to an EXPENSIVE AND MORE DIFFICULT TO FIND refrigerant, in order to fix something that likely is not refrigerant based. Then you wil go through a whole of of money to diagnose the issue using EXPENSIVE R12 and in the end find I'm right.

If I can get an ARA and Frigi-King AFTERMARKET 240Z system to run to 34 degrees center register using R134 in a converted two popper York Reciprocating system, and OEM system is a piece of cake.

Trust me on this one, if you are having an issue, it's not with the R134.

"I had to remove the evaporator and clean the expansion valve (that is not available anywhere...unless you buy the evaporator). It all disassembles easily so I cleaned it. I removed everything but the condenser and flushed and cleaned everything. I rigged up something to flush and clean the condenser in the car. The compressor was drained and flushed and cleaned. Then reassembled, evacuated and filled with R-12 where I get about 35 degree air."

Typical story: I took it apart cleaned it, CHANGED THE REFRIGERANT and then it worked, R12 is great, R134 Sucks.

Never TRIED R134 in a FUNCTIONING SYSTEM (after he cleaned the expansion valve) but claims it was the change to R12 that fixed it.

If you have a FUNCTIONING SYSTEM R134 will work just fine, all these systems are oversized and unless you fu*k something up, they will function in either mode with well under 40F center register performance.

This is typical of the 'psuedo science' prevalent here. He drank milk every day, He died at age 98. Milk killed him. Same for this story. I ran a system with a plugged Evap Valve, I cleaned it and changed the refrigerant to something else. It worked afterwards. It was the refrigerant.

Wrong, it was the plugged valve. Poor example to put up, totally misleading.

As for 'following the letter of the law', I haven't done and R134 conversion since getting the Dually. It was the first test of Freeze 12. I used it, it works. It saved me the hassle of the conversion oil. If I had an R134 converted system, I'd not bother to 'convert back'---that is just a waste of time and money. It's not a refrigerant issue. It's airflow or componentry that failed.

Pallidin---you're writing words, and I'm simply showing you what the end result of your post will be.
Read what I wrote and tell me the idiots here will not take that away: changed to R12 and it worked. (Totally disregard the offhanded comment you cleaned the exp valve.) Happens all the time here.

Mark my words, I'm not putting words in your mouth, I'm premptively fixing the damage you did with a poorly written post which is open to interpretation exactly as I said.

It's not worth the costs to switch back---your example reinforced exactly what I said: it's the system components, not the R134.

Unfortunately you choose to go back to R12 for dubious reasons. IMO it was a poor choice and FAR more expensive than simply cleaning the valve and recharging with R134.

If you want to spend other people's money foolishly, that's you bag. It's not mine.

There's nothing wrong with his R134 (other than maybe a low charge)---his analysis that he has to convert back to R12 to get it working right is purely 100% wrong. As was your choice to do so.

R134 works fine in an R12 system in a Datsun. And most other cars. The reported inefficencies are more technical theory bullshite than anything else.