Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2019 01:27:51 +0000
Reply-To: Richard Koerner <rjkinpb@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Richard Koerner <rjkinpb@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
Subject: Fixing Vanagon Air Conditioning....trying at least
In-Reply-To: <6921D5C6-E1D8-4A12-895A-7BC86BBD2831@icloud.com>
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Jeff, GoWesty has a very good writeup about the issues with getting satisfactory performance on Vanagon Air Conditioning. As for me, mine is an 85 tintop....and thus has the evaporator hanging from the ceiling just behind the front seats. I also have a Subie 2.2 conversion; when the conversion was done, with a Subie A/C compressor, I requested that they try to get the A/C working again. They did. But I had leaks. So took it to a knowledgeable shop here in San Diego. They replaced O-rings and stuff...but with sniffer determined that I had a small leak in the evaporator. So....by law...they could NOT refill with R-12 freon (incredibly expensive anyway). They converted system to R-134A. So far so good. But stuff leaked out. So I bought a Stop-Leak can (available for R-134A but NOT available for R-12). It worked mostly; I followed instructions exactly with regard to putting in the Stop-Leak and then immediately following up with R-134A refrigerant. Now, one year later, A/C was still "sorta" working...but not icy cold. Still must have a little leak. I did the routine of adding R-134A. I carefully monitored low side pressure to hold it at about 35 PSI. But I think I overfilled. On recent trip through deserts of Arizona at 106 F, my A/C worked fine for about 20 minutes....but then seemed to give up. I think the problem is overfill of freon (causing icing up of expansion valve, so maybe also need evacuation to get rid of even a tiny bit of water in system). Also...per the GoWesty writeup, R-134A is only about 80% efficient compared to original R-12. Also, GoWesty recommends a "parallel" condenser up front as apposed to the original "serpentine" condenser...I wish I had done that. Anyway, like GoWesty says.....it's a very tough and expensive problem to solve. So much air volume in van...so much sun exposure...and old technology. Heck....any modern car can do the job just fine! Good luck...I'm still struggling too with the issue.
Rich
San Diego
On Monday, August 5, 2019, 3:06:57 PM PDT, Jeff Palmer <w.jeff.palmer@ICLOUD.COM> wrote:
With my advancing age and borderline health :) I am finding it hard to handle heat these days. My 85 does not have AC. Thinking about selling and finding one with AC - if it actually works? And is AC the same in every year?
So does Westfalia AC actually cool or is it the 1985 version of cooling?
Thanks
Jeff
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