A/C leak

[Joseph23]

I had my ac fixed on my Silverado a little bit ago and it’s now suspected that there’s a leak at the evaporator core. My truck holds a little less than 2 pounds of refrigerant, if that 2 pounds was to dump into the cab would it be dangerous?  And how long should I expect it to take for me to pull the dash out again and replace the evaporator 

[Snowcamo]

If your evap is leaking that bad you would smell it. The service port you put refrigerant in will have a valve core in it. That can leak after you put refrigerant in. They go bad, so try that first to hope you do not have to pull the dash. 

 

How quick can you move to get the dash out is on you and a helper.

[davester]

who "suspected" this?  I suggest doing some diagnosis/testing to find where the problem, rather than guessing that the most difficult & expensive to replace part of the a/c system is the problem.

[Jsdirt]

Yeah, better stick a sniffer up the condensate drain tube after adding some pressure with 134a to be sure that's where the leak is.

 

If it's newer than a 2012, I'd put money on a bad condenser. Just about every single one leaks there down low on one side. More low-bidder GM junk! 

 

134a won't kill you. I huff the stuff every day. Seriously - it's used as a propellant in asthma inhalers!!

 

Before the 21st century they used R12. They use the chemical name of the propellant in the ingredients list - it's always a refrigerant.

[Joseph23]

9 hours ago, Jsdirt said:

Yeah, better stick a sniffer up the condensate drain tube after adding some pressure with 134a to be sure that's where the leak is.

 

If it's newer than a 2012, I'd put money on a bad condenser. Just about every single one leaks there down low on one side. More low-bidder GM junk! 

 

134a won't kill you. I huff the stuff every day. Seriously - it's used as a propellant in asthma inhalers!!

 

Before the 21st century they used R12. They use the chemical name of the propellant in the ingredients list - it's always a refrigerant.

The truck is a 2003 Silverado 2500HD

when I was a kid and my dad was driving it I had once asked him why his ac didn’t work and he said because it didn’t have any Freon in it, which leads to now I have the truck and I wanted to get the ac working I bought absolutely everything to redo the entire system. I pushed down on the service port valve just to check and it shot out some gas with reasonable pressure behind it, so apparently this truck held pressure for 20+ years. Once my boss checked charge and everything it was working and the clutch on the compressor burnt up. That’s probably why my dad took the belt off the compressor. But I put a new compressor on and a new high and low side line with the orifice tube. Vacuumed the system for something like 35-40 minutes and recharged it. I have a cheap Pittsburgh leak detector and sometimes it says it picking up refrigerant from the vents and sometimes it says it doesn’t, same with the smell sometimes when I get in the truck I kinda smell compressor oil and sometimes I don’t. So I don’t really know where to go from here 

[Jsdirt]

You definitely need a reliable leak detector for evaporator leaks.

 

2003 is good - they were still reasonably well built at that time, although interior components had started going downhill.

 

Best thing to do is get a spray bottle of soapy water and hit every single connection under the hood to rule those out. Hopefully you flushed the new compressor out with fresh oil, changed the condenser, orifice tube, and accumulator before running it ...

 

I highly recommend using Nylog on every o-ring. The stuff is amazing. Been using it for 15+ years. I've seen that stuff hold a completely unsecured connection for a whole week before blowing out! Vehicle had the totally wrong accumulator, so there was a 1/4" gap between the pipes! Nylog held it all in all that time. Amazing stuff.

[Joseph23]

1 hour ago, Jsdirt said:

You definitely need a reliable leak detector for evaporator leaks.

 

2003 is good - they were still reasonably well built at that time, although interior components had started going downhill.

 

Best thing to do is get a spray bottle of soapy water and hit every single connection under the hood to rule those out. Hopefully you flushed the new compressor out with fresh oil, changed the condenser, orifice tube, and accumulator before running it ...

 

I highly recommend using Nylog on every o-ring. The stuff is amazing. Been using it for 15+ years. I've seen that stuff hold a completely unsecured connection for a whole week before blowing out! Vehicle had the totally wrong accumulator, so there was a 1/4" gap between the pipes! Nylog held it all in all that time. Amazing stuff.

I don’t remember exactly but I think I put 3 oz of oil on the compressor put on the new high/low side line which came with a new orifice tube, I didn’t change the condenser though, however yesterday I bought some of that A/C pro with leak seal ****** from Walmart mostly because my truck holds 1.6 lbs but only got 15oz put in it when it was charged after the new compressor and stuff. I used about half the can and it was around 40lbs on that shitty little gauge they come with. It cooled nicely while idling. Other than the cost of constantly refilling the system if I have a leak I had a lung removed due to a cancer in that lung which is part of the reason I was wondering if the 134 is dangerous if it leaked into the cab and also to diagnose a leak if one is present

[Snowcamo]

Gas displaces oxygen. Period. Just not safe in a closed environment or unprescribed. 

 

How it affects each person is unknown.  

 

How long does it take the system to leak out once you put 134a in? 

 

 

[Jsdirt]

4 hours ago, Joseph23 said:

I don’t remember exactly but I think I put 3 oz of oil on the compressor put on the new high/low side line which came with a new orifice tube, I didn’t change the condenser though, however yesterday I bought some of that A/C pro with leak seal ****** from Walmart mostly because my truck holds 1.6 lbs but only got 15oz put in it when it was charged after the new compressor and stuff. I used about half the can and it was around 40lbs on that shitty little gauge they come with. It cooled nicely while idling. Other than the cost of constantly refilling the system if I have a leak I had a lung removed due to a cancer in that lung which is part of the reason I was wondering if the 134 is dangerous if it leaked into the cab and also to diagnose a leak if one is present

Most of the oil typically sits in the condenser, so you may have too much oil in the system ... especially if the accumulator wasn't changed. 

 

The accumulator should always be changed since there's desiccant inside. Once open to the atmosphere, that desiccant is done doing its job.

 

Stop leak is a really bad idea. You might be on the hook for the technician's equipment if that stuff ruins it, although most these days have taken precautions against it, since it's sold everywhere these days. That garbage shouldn't even be sold to the general public. Once the tech finds out there's stop leak in there, they might refuse to work on it - just FYI. That stuff will destroy a $6,000 recovery machine pretty quick, and makes a mess out of gauge hoses & fittings. It's designed to harden upon contact with air.