DrCharles
Full Access Member
Can I make a suggestion? For less than $250, I put all new hoses condenser, evaporator, dryer and compressor on mine. Installed the 134 orifice tube and never looked back. You will never get the thing clean enough to not plug the orifice again over time. People complain about 134 cooling but mine does just fine.
We'll see... I think I got it pretty clean, lots of solvent and compressed air on a warm day There was an inline filter screen that someone stuck on the condenser (actually on the outlet side!) and it was clean. The orifice tube screen was blocked solid with Black Death, as were the adapter fittings on the original R-12 ports. Not a lot of stuff in the evaporator either, since it was all trapped in the orifice inlet screen!
I am planning to charge it with R-134a, since my new compressor comes precharged with 3 oz of PAG 46 oil anyway (system takes 7 oz). When I had my '84 F-150, since the compressor was leaking, I put a new one on, changed receiver-dryer and O-rings, nothing else, and charged with 134 to the rule-of-thumb 2.2 to 2.5 times the ambient temp (e.g. 80F = 176 to 200 psi). Worked great, but that truck had a good sized condenser too (although still the tube & fin that "everyone knows" doesn't work with 134)
There are alternative refrigerants too. Hydrocarbons work great, are cheap and have no ozone depleting potential. Although, thanks to lobbying by MACS and Dupont, they are illegal in 17 states (last time I checked) and banned by the EPA too. Lots of other countries use them and don't have fireballs coming out the windows a la "Cheech and Chong"...
But I digress. If my orifice screen plugs up again I will be back to admit you were right