Conclusion and happy ending to my 360 AC woes

Hey guys,
Many of you contributed and assisted in troubleshooting while I’ve worked on my AC issues over the last month or so. Now that I’ve wrapped up all the work (for now), I wanted to share my conclusion.
Most recently, I ordered a rebuilt compressor from Compressor International, as well as all new O-rings, belt and receiver drier. I had a shop evacuate the system, then brought it home to do the work. I rented an AC flush kit from AutoZone, and flushed the system with about 45 ounces of the solvent/flush solution after removing the compressor and receiver.

Wow, the amount of CRAP that came out of this system?!?! First of all, the date from the receiver drier was May of 2003. So this thing has NEVER been changed. I saved it to cut it open and inspect at a later date, just for the heck of it.
I drained the flush into both a Home Depot bucket, and a clear plastic bag, just because I couldn’t believe how much stuff was coming out of it, and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t some kind of leftover sediment that had already dried in the bucket before. I assure you, it was not.
I put fresh Nylog blue on all the O rings, installed the new drier, compressor, belt and tensioned both the AC and the alternator belts with the Conti app, then drove it back to the shop.
We put a vacuum on it for 30 minutes, and after everything proved tight and secure, he put a few oz’s of oil with UV dye, and topped up with the proper weight of refrigerant. AC is now blowing nice and cold, consistently.

Thanks to all to weighed in, offered sound advice, and stuck with me through all the trial and error and questions

Enjoy some pictures of the CRAP that’s been running through this system for all these years. And gentlemen, if you haven’t done so before, FLUSH your AC systems next time you’re in there!!
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That’s easy enough. I just figured a fresh thread titled as a conclusion would draw fresh eyes to the solution and the flushing advice, in case some people would skip the old threads if they didn’t have the answer to the previous questions. But yes, I’ll do that too!

 

For the flush, I disconnected the compressor and left the 2 lines connected to the distribution union that bolts to the body of the compressor. I used lengths of clear PVC tubing to fit over the outlets of the unions and zip tied them in place, with the tubing resting in the 5 gallon bucket.
Up front, I first removed the fittings from the evaporator in order to remove the receiver drier. Once I removed the drier, I replaced the evaporator line on the left hand side (passenger side) to prepare for flushing.

The flush kit itself is simply a bottle that you fill with the flush solvent solution which is pressurized by 100 psi of compressed air from one side, with a rubber-cone tip on a trigger nozzle on the other side.

I used the diagram I’ve attached from the WSM to determine which lines connected to which components and what direction of travel each line was responsible for.


Starting from the evaporator at the firewall, I backflushed the evaporator and the line back to the compressor using the open fitting on the right hand (driver) side. I did this several times.

Moving to the condenser, I used the hose that attaches the short end of the drier to the condenser, dumping out back at the other compressor line. I repeated this several times as well. This direction is also a backflush of the normal path of flow.

I chose to backflush only for a few reasons. 1. I believe backflushing to be the most important of the 2 directions (completely unfounded in scientific fact, so take it for what it’s worth); 2. I didn’t have enough sizes and lengths of tubing to attach anything to the lines in the front of the car to reliably and safely blow 100 psi of air and solvent into the front of the car without risking soaking the frunk and making a complete mess of everything while trying to flush in the normal direction of flow, and 3. I was almost out of solvent.

I’m confident and hopeful that not much more would’ve come out. I also know that what did come out is a 1000% improvement over what was in there!

Before I buttoned everything up, I removed the lines at the compressor from the distribution union, cleaned everything up nicely, and replaced those 2 o-rings with sealant /lube, as well as replacing the O-rings (dowty seal type) from the distribution union to the compressor. Up front I replaced 4 O rings (2 on the drier, one on each evaporator union) and buttoned it all back up.

So far, so good!

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Unfortunate to hear about the 30 minutes being insufficient, but the extraction of water vapor hadn’t even really crossed my mind, or apparently the techs. I moreso wanted to make sure that all the seals and O-rings I replaced and all the lines I disconnected and reconnected we’re actually holding and not going to cause a leak leading to more issues. Hopefully it was better than nothing And sufficient enough to get me by with cold AC until the next time I flush and refill the system.

also, for those interested, here’s a pic of the insides of a 20 year old receiver dryer.

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