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1988 K5 Air Conditioning Upgrade ?

T

THEMCGUIRE

1/2 ton status
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Las Vegas, Nevada
Hello all. I am rebuilding my '88 Blazer. The thread on that is WTF Do I do now - 1988 K5.

With all the rain lately here in North NJ and not being able to work on the rebuild I have been thinking ahead about my upcoming move to Las Vegas.

Will my stock A/C be able to handle the hot climate in LV ? Should I just refresh / recharge the current AC or is it possible to upgrade the system to handle Vegas heat ?

LMC sells a 10 cylinder compressor that they say will replace the existing 6 cylinder compressor. It's 450 bucks will it make the system better?

http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/csb/full.aspx?Page=64

Looking forward to your advise.
 
If your system is currently working I would not touch it. If it gets used regularly it should keep the seals wetted and it should not have leaked any Freon. It has the same A/C system whether it gets sold in Las Vegas where it gets way to hot or here in Iowa where it gets way to hot and way to cold.

As far as the 10 Cylinder being better I would guess it would not make the system better if your current compressor is working fine. A/C systems are not like tires bigger is not always better. I would assume that the 10 cylinder has smaller cylinders then the 6 and would move the same volume of Freon. If it moved more volume it would not work correctly with the rest of your A/C system. It would load up your condenser with liquid and cause the compressor to short cycle.

Hope this helps. Its always something you could look at out there if it not working as well as you like. just don't want you to waste money on something that might not be necessary.
 
thanks

thanks for the reply and good info. I watched a couple of utubes about a/c and they agreed with you.

My ac is not working right now. one of the tubes separated on the high pressure line. After watching utubes I will be putting it in a shop for a complete flush and conversion to r134a. I now understand how important a flush is.

again thanks for your feedback.
 
R134a is the way to go as R12 is so regulated and expensive! But the condensor is quite differant to increase cooling.

A pusher fan in front for slow speeds and stopped idle really helps.

Besides a complete flush all O rings need to be changed. Oil is different from R12 to R 134a and not compatible.

There's no shortcuts or cheap parts in AC! Well not if you want it to work well or for long time...

My R12 recovery machine got a leak about 3 years ago and I lost all my R12! :doah:

Complete system was still in good shape on my 1990 Suburban, so I replaced the condensor and some O rings while it was apart and filler it with Evirocare R12 replacement. It's LPG in an AC can. LPG is what is used in automotive AC in Europe.

Third year and still blowing cold! :woot:
 
If you're going to spend the money to convert to 134a, and being It's going to a hot desert climate, I would highly recommend you replace the condenser with one designed to be used with 134a, otherwise I can pretty well bet you won't be too happy with it running around town in stop and go traffic.

Even with the added fan in front of mine, it still struggled to maintain a decent cooling temp at slower speeds.
 
I swapped over pretty much everything to the r134a system. Being over 20 years old, I didn't want to take the chance of replacing a one or two components, recharge it, and then find out I need to replace another item (which then leads to another trip for testing/refilling).

I found all of my parts online and replaced with AC Delco equipment. Then, I brought the whole truck into the dealer and they tested and filled the system properly. It's now been ice cold and works awesome! Still a big chunk of money any way you look at it but if you are moving to LV, you're going to need it working.
 
British Slave said:
You can change the condensor to a parallel flow style and it will help a lot. Check RockAuto, I bought one for a little less than $100 and it was well worth the expense.
Click to expand...

I bought mine at the local auto parts store for $125 and had it that day.:D
 
Looking for Parallel flow

I found a few Parallel Flow condensers on ebay but when I enter my truck info I get message stating:

This part is not compatible with 1988 Chevrolet Blazer Silverado 5.7L.

However, from the picture the inlet / outlet tubes are close to where mine are right now. Following is heading of what I found on ebay:

UNIVERSAL NEW AC CONDENSER OEM# 3053293 52484151 CONDENSER PARALLEL FLOW

Following is URL:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/UNIVERSAL-N...7542877?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories

Is this the one I need ? I don't want to buy based on the picture alone!!!!

Also, will changing the condenser change the number of pounds of R134a that are needed ?

Appreciate any feedback.


EDITED: NEW INFO: Parallel Flow Condenser (FYI - I bought this one: Spectra 7-3642 A/C Condenser - Factory finish, Aluminum, Parallel flow) and it FITS PERFECTLY!!
 
Last edited:
I found the 15.5 x 30.5 inch one, link is shown below.

https://www.ackits.com/pc/12-0568A/Parallel/12-0568A+-+FSHE+PF+Condenser+%2815.5+X+30.5%29

Expensive but the site gives me a feeling of quality idk why :D and they sell a mounting kit for another 11 bucks.

Will this fit 83-91 K5's better ?

Looks like hoses will need some adjusting?


Take a look and please advise if you share my opinion.

OH BTW I believe that Parallel Flow condensors CANNOT be FLUSHED, because the holes are so small!!!! So make sure your system is really clean before you install.
 
Nothing useful to ad, but I was washing the wife's Ferd the other day, and have been noticing the AC kinda sucking, so I looked at the condenser to see if it's overly dirty, full of bugs. Holy crap that thing is easily twice as long as the one in the Blazer.

And didn't know the difference in a parallel flow condenser, looked it up. Neat.
 
New a/c components installed - does not get cold

I just rebuilt this system to convert to R134a. Following is NEW:

Parallel Flow Condenser (FYI - I bought this one: Spectra 7-3642 A/C Condenser - Factory finish, Aluminum, Parallel flow) and it FITS PERFECTLY!!

Compressor
Orifice Tube
Accumulator / Drier

I flushed out the evaporator and hoses using a pressurized can of flush. Then blew them out till dry with compressed air.

I put 8 oz. of ester oil into the compressor and then rotated the compressor 10 times to circulate the oil in the system.

I vacuumed the system till the blue gauge reading was -40.

With engine running and a/c on max I started to put in R134a. My system was R12 and it called for 52 oz of R12. So going with the 80% rule I put in exactly 42 oz of r134a. (3 full 12 oz cans, then 1/2 can. Used a scale to monitor the weight on the last can)

It took forever - like 15 min per can - compressor clutch NEVER engaged. So after all was in I jumped the switch at the drier with a paper clip to force the compressor to engage.

Compressor comes on. But DOES NOT GET COLD and my readings are -25 on low and -10 on high side.

Where did my gas go ?

Any ideas what I did wrong or what is going on ???????? Help
 
I don't think your gas was going in? Just leaking if it took that long... should have jumped compressor clutch and let it suck gas in? Goes in fast, last half can maybe a little longer...
 
Between the can and system? Just a guess? I never wait that long and jump compressor so it sucks in...

Could be the fitting was not depressing shrader valve? There's so many differant ones...
 
just remembered somthing

I just remembered that since the stock drier is for a R12 system I had to buy and install the adapter to r134a. Now the drier had a schraeder valve before I put the adapter on ? and the adapter also had a schraeder valve.

Was I supposed to remove the schraeder valve from the drier first ? I did not because it looked like the valve in the adapter would depress the one on the drier

Could that be where my gas leaked from ?


FYI I did not see any kind of mist escaping anywhere.
 
I'm not sure, can't see it but sounds like the issue. Gas should go in way faster then 15 minutes a can.

You would not see anything leaking that slow...

Before you start again did you add dye?
 
No I bought it but since everywhere I read said to use ester oil and as I was about to install it I saw the bottle of dye had PAG 65 I did not use it because I did not want to mix the PAG and Ester oils. Figured I could add it later if needed.

FYI I removed the adapter and then removed the schrader valve. Installed red loc-tight and reinstalled the adapter.

Vacuuming again now No gas came out when I removed the
schrader on the drier so I must have lost all of it.

Sorry Earth, It was a mistake. Forgive me?
 
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