Personal preference here. I dont use nor recomend the use of oil with leak stop in it. Theres no way for the leak stop to tell what is a leak and what isnt, Ive seen them stop up and clog orifice tubes as well as expansion valves before.

Now onto the refrigerant, I have yet to see a 134a can come with oil in it. If it did I would not purchase this because if you add oil to your system when its already full, you will raise your head pressure and hurt your cooling capabilitites. Only add oil if you know it needs it because its low. Considering these trucks have york compressors for the most part, you can evacuate the A/C system and open the top plug in the compressor and check with a dipstick (shop manuals tell you how to make one) to see how much oil is in your compressors sump. If its shows it has a full 8 oz charge then dont add any oil to it.

 

Sorry one more post... I've been doing a bit of research but finally might have found a good website at least for reference. Is the following what you're talking about?:

TC 6535: R134a Oil Charge

In short, it's a 12oz can of "r134a Oil Charge" containing 4 oz. POE oil (polyol ester) and 8 oz. of refrigerant, leak sealer and detector dye.

It's cheap cheap cheap too. $3.50 per can.

anyhoo.... thanks again. They have a ton more refrigerants on that site if anyone is looking. I also noticed they had cans of freeze 12...oil charge.

 

posted the above post before I saw this...

When you say evacuate the system you mean once its empty? Just want to make sure i'm not mistaking that for pulling a vacuum on the system.

Do you have the instructions on how to check the oil?

On the flip side of things, doesn't the system need compatible oil for the 134? (ester being compatible oil...).

:::really confused now:::: LOL!

thanks as always

 

Mineral Oil/Ester oil is used in R12, PAG oil is used in R134a. Lots of people use Ester oil in R12 to R134a conversion. personally Ive used PAG oil in all of my R12 to R134a conversions and they work with no problem. If you dont have a sump you want to make sure you use a oil that will flow with the refrigerant. PAG oil will flow with R134a refrigerant and Ester oil will flow with R134a as well, honestly Mineral oil will flow with R134a as well but its just not as efficient. Lots claim that it wont flow but the differences between R12 and R134a composition wise is very small.

When I say evacuate, that means recover all the refrigerant in the system. Then you take and if you have a York style compressor there will be a hex headed plug in the recessed area of the compressor typically on top (if the compressor mounts on its side but some Yorks are mounted verticle). You remove this plug and get another copper washer as you need a new crush washer to reseal your refrigerant system. You pull the plug out and take the dipstick and stick it down into the opening till it touches bottom of the compressor case. It will have marks on it letting you know if theres enough oil in the sump or not.

I dont have my shop manuals handy that covers the checking of oil level in the sump of a york compressor but any factory Ford shop manual will have under the A/C section, a how to article on checking it and making a home made dipstick if one cant be purchased. If you make one its just a rod with a few marks placed upon it and the marks are measured out.

 

Again, you are making this too hard. The conversion kits come with taller cans with the oil and the refrigerant in the can together. There are usually two cans in the kit. Walmart and the parts stores carry these conversion kits.

The tall cans have the proper amount of oil for the 134a you are putting in the system. And it's ester oil in these conversion kits. The reason is the ester oil does not react with the old r12 oil, they live together in the system with no trouble.

If you use PAG oil, you have to take the whole system apart and get all the old r12 oil out of the system using some sort of flush or other solvents. The PAG oil and the old r12 oil do not like each other.

See, they have it all figured out for you in the kit. Buy the conversion kit with the two tall cans and the fittings.

 

I know I sound like an over-thinking idiot but I'm just not finding a these "conversion" kits per se in the stores around my area weather it be a Wall*Mart or Advance Auto.

Advance does have a kit that's the same as the one I found on Amazon but its synthetic 134 or whatever they're billing it as and it does contain oil but the can only just says "contains oil"; no mention of the type of oil.

I'll try and hit up a few more stores. I remember last year Wall*Mart carrying a much bigger selection of automotive refrigerants between brand and type (i.e. the crap with leak stop, etc). The last store I checked only carried small (8oz cans) and it was just refrigerant. It was very weird in my opinion to NOT be able to find a kit. I know each store is different so I'll have to keep looking....

 

I have used this one a couple of times before. See where it says "retrofit" kit.

Interdynamics EZ Chill R-12 to R-134a Recharge and Retrofit Kit RKR-8: Buy the right A/C R-134a Refrigerant at Advance Auto Parts

 

oddly enough I just found this same exact kit at a completely different walmart today. I ended up going on a friggen road trip of wal-mart stops this afternoon. You beat me to the post.

So the kit did not specify anywhere on the package/can what kind of oil used in the charge. SO I actually called interdynamic while shopping. Took me like 20 minutes on hold but finally got to a tech support guy. The gentleman I spoke to claimed the oil in the RKR-8 kit was indeed PAG 100 oil. Not really sure how much of this was b.s. but since you recommended it anyway I'll suppose its not.

That one website I found (wholesalepartsandtools.com) has the kit for like $25 less than Advance. WOW!!! They also have that high-side adapter I need. I tried using the aluminum conversion fitting but my quick connects just can't depress the schrader valve. It's not threading on far enough...

Thanks so much everyone...once again, it's very much appreciated. Im hoping to get my air converted over by next week.

Thanks for helping me

 

The simplest way I converted by Bronco II over to R134 from R12, I put on a low side R134 port and just stuffed a can of R134 into the system. It worked over the summer till the leak lost the charge again. Put another R134 can in and lasted for another 8 months. It never had any problems with the R12 and R134 mix.

Heck, that fix out lasted 2 A4LD trannys!

 

Thing is the composition of R12 and R134a are not that much different from one to another.

Ive owned cars that I converted and put pag oil in without flushing, truth is you never get all the old oil out in flushing anyways. Only way is to replace every last component with new. But Ive done it and ive never had issues, some claim that pag oil and mineral oil dont mix and become acidic. Well must take a lot longer than 10 years as my oldest conversion is 11 years old and it is still working like the day it was done.

Honestly all it is, is just a gimmic to get people to spend more money than they truely have to.

 

I've used that same kit on many vehicles. Never had an issue with them.

 

That's the kit I used...7 years with no problem

 

OK guys you called it. The RKR-8 kit is the way to go! Thank you so much for all the help and having to deal with my over-analyzation (if that's even a word...here I go again) of which refrigerant to use.

I always felt that the "incompatibility" of refrigerants thing was more of a joke or extra precaution.

So then the plan is to evacuate the r12, suck down the system (vacuum) and fill 'er up with some 134a.

Thanks Again,