Be real careful of the alternative refriderants on the market. R-12 or R-134a should be the only 2 used in automobiles. I still have a bit of R-12 to use in my car, but I've heard from several that R-134a will work OK in the older systems.

I have been told by Gordon Killebrew, the C4 expert, to not change to 134. He said that older systems were not made for the less dense 134 and you will never be happy. I really don't know but 134 is much cheaper.

I used the interdynamics kit in my 73 that I got from walmart.

First we evacuated the system. When we put the first can in it took about half and then stopped. Come to find out that the plastic piercing valve that they supply was defective. I bought a professional tap and it worked great.

The a/c blows very cold.

i have decided to get my AC recharged with R-12. it is still avaiable and after having an AC shop look at mine they wanted to convert to 134. but would have to change lots of parts to get it to work as well as R12. by staying with R12 i just need the broken compressor replaced and the system purged and filled. i contacted a referegerent company and they told me that 134 will work as well as R12 but the entire system has to be set up for 134 which is why the AC shop had to replace all the extra parts also the 134 works at much higher pressures and that R12 systems arn't engineered to work at these higher pressures especially in such older cars as mine.

Someone (redvet I think) already beat me to it by saying ,,, "I want you all to know that Envirosafe (and some other products like it such as Duracool, HC-12a, MX-12a, etc.) are hydrocarbon based flammable substances similar, if not exactly like the propane in your barbeque grill's tank. Installation of these types of refrigerants could be dangerous to you and your Corvette if somehow system integrity were to become comprimised. Further, while it's very unlikely you would get caught, or even if so, procecuted, it is illegal to install flammable refrigerants as substitutes for CFC-12."
R-12 production in the USA has been banned for about 7 or 8 years. It's been against the law to import it for about 4 or 5 years if I remember correctly. NO AUTO REPAIR FACILITIES in the US are allowed to BUY R-12,,, period. You can use your "stockpile" & THAT'S IT. BTW, if they STILL have R-12 in the shop, then they aren't doing too many A/C jobs. The R-12 that's being sold today is mixed with numerous other agents to give good enough performance in your car but CAN BE DEADLY. Household A/C freon (R-4?, I forget), is one of the more common ones to mix, along with PROPANE. Normally, R-12 will blow out the vents about 30-35 cooler than the ambient (outside) air, but not cooler than 34 degrees. R-134 is only about a 22-27 degree temp change. Higher pressures,,, yes, & not all our OEM compressors will handle it, worry about that later tho, if it blows. Do a thorough flush of the system to help. Condensors also have much much smaller tubing (about 8-12 tubes would fit where 1 tube used to be) to assist in the "gas to fluid"/cool-down change. I almost lost track of where I was going with this,,, but I guess it was to say,, GET RID OF THE R-12,, IT'S NOT WORTH IT. sorry that was so long.

|UPDATED|4/14/2003 11:44:52 PM|/UPDATED|

R12 sold in florida is recovered from systems being converted to R134 as per state law

ok, I won't go on & on about this but,, look at the "brightest side" possible. Are they purifying the R12 that's about to go into your car? I highly doubt it, because that would be IMPOSSIBLE to do. You will get all the little metal shavings & everything else from other peoples blown compressors that they didn't "filter" out. Blown compressors is THE MAIN REASON people retro to begin with. Not to mention any moisture that was in the system. The very reason you have to replace a reciever/dryer any time you open the system up is because of moisture. How many cars do you think they would have to retrofit to make enough "pure" R12 to fill your system up to capacity?

QUOTE|BacaBill said: Are they purifying the R12 that's about to go into your car? I highly doubt it, because that would be IMPOSSIBLE to do. You will get all the little metal shavings & everything else from other peoples blown compressors that they didn't "filter" out.

All R12 taken out of refitted cars is sold to a distributor which filters and rebottles it for resale back to whoever has a license to buy and install it. The state has lots of regulations reguarding its' sale with hefty fines. It is resold as pure R12 Nothing can be added to it. i'm sure with the milions of older cars with R12 still running around there will be enough supply for many years to come for the few cars still using the R12. Every shop I talk to wants me to convert to R134 but they admitt that it may not cool as well when questioned and some suggested that it may need additional cooling to get it to work properly. I don't see any need to change a system that has been designed and worked for years with R12. I agree R134 works great but only in systems designed for its use.

SIG|

I agree with Garry. These cars are hard enough to keep cool, why change over to a system that you pretty much know up front that will not cool as effectively.

There is plenty of pure R12 available to the trade if you wish to pay the price . Myself I feel the performance of R12 speaks for itself ,and the folks that drive our cars will spend the extra cash for it !



one hoo nose

Geo