Alright guys we are on the launch pad ready for lift off, almost there! I went and got another orifice tube, just a different brand. I coated the o-rings with PAG oil and then took a syringe and shot some pag oil inside the EVAP tube. Same thing happened, I got the orifice tube inside the EVAP tube and it started to get difficult to push but felt slightly better this time. I noticed that the orifice tube has little **** that stick out on each side so you can use the pipe coming from the condenser to help push it in. I got it about 95% of the way in but I couldn't get the quick connect to latch between the two pipes. I then used my syringe again and squirted some pag oil on the quick connect spring, gave it one more hard push and bam it clicked in! Hopefully I didn't roll a o-ring or something but it felt pretty good so crossing fingers. Got all my new hoses hooked up and pulled a vacuum for about an hour and 15 minutes and then of course a storm came. The vacuum held at - 30 for about 20 minutes so I think it's looking like I don't have any leaks. The gauges are still hooked up with the valves closed under the hood so once the rain stops I will try to vacuum it down for a while longer just to make sure it's good. Other than that I was going to try the upside down method with the refrigerant cans, if anyone has any tips or tricks for adding the refrigerant I am all ears. Thanks for all the help guys

 

The cheap ones usually always have fitment issues and will bang and rattle on stuff and not use all the factory hanger points. Not good on a truck that needs to go down the road thousands of miles a month on the highway and not rattle itself apart. I was fairly impressed with the fitment on the 4" Diamond Eye downpipe though. Much better than the junk it replaced anyway.

 

And the newer orifice tubes you tried to put in were the same dimensions and length as the old one?

 

I agree. I've even had newer style motorcraft parts that didn't fit right compared to the old one but that usually cuts the problem down by 90%. It's a Motorcraft Evaporator?

Are you sure those "****" on the side of the tube don't need to be "clocked" or key-wayed into the bore to allow it to slide in all the way? Never done this before either just a guess on that.

The thing about the oil is a little preplexing also. Usually you'd dump the oil out of the old compressor and then refill the new one with only that amount so it didn't end up with too much oil in there. But with a completely dry system and a new compressor I guess you'd just leave the 7 oz in there (which seems like a lot to me.) and just put the other 2 in the condenser and evaporator? It's supposed to circulate though the whole system so I don't see how it doesn't end up where it needs to be pretty quickly or why Motorcraft would fill it with that amount if they didn't intend for it to be installed that way.

 

when I bought my '02 Excursion, it had a tiny car muffler glued to the header about midway back, and no tail pipe.
was making me sick and light headed.....
I stopped at the 1st muffler shop I saw, and had them run 4" from the header to the bumper.
they used all of the factory hangers,

no drone that I can hear, until I hit the go pedal.

 

Yes same size , the only difference I did with the second orfice tube was use the pipe from the condenser to push it the rest of the way in. It was still far to difficult to push the orfice in though, just hope I never have to take it back out lol. I think the EVAP tube was manufactured a tad to small.

 

Yes motorcraft evaporator. I ended up putting 1 oz in the EVAP, 1 oz in the condenser, a 1/2 ounce in the accumulator/ drier, and a small shot down one of the condenser lines. This put me about 1/2 oz over but it should be ok. There is just so much conflicting info on the Internet about truck AC systems my head was spinning so I just made the best decision possible.

 

Well I ended up vacuuming the system down for for a total of about 2 hours. Might be overkill but some say to vacuum down for 30 minutes and some say leave it on all night ( again a lot of conflicting info out there on AC systems). Figured since everything is new including the AC lines, 2 hours should be plenty. When I first started to purge the refrigerant hose I couldn't get the valve on the can to operate correctly no matter how much I adjusted the valve in or out. Not sure if I got any air in the system with the first can but ended up changing out the can adapter and everything went smoothly after that. Was able to purge the refrigerant line with no problems after changing that out. Watching the hi and low pressures as I added in 3 1/2 cans I was still a little low on pressure so I ended up adding a total of 4 cans which seemed to get my pressures in the right spot. I figured from purging the refrigerant line each time I changed cans and having a problem with the first can I lost some refrigerant anyways. All in all it worked out pretty good, I have about 51 degrees in the middle register at idle and if I hold the throttle at 1800 RPMs it got down to 46 degrees so that's over 20 degrees colder than what I was at before replacing everything. I did use the smaller orfice tube #38639 so thought I should have seen a little bit cooler temps . Tomorrow will be the real test though, towing in the hot humid Florida heat will definitely let me know if all is good. I would imagine when running at higher RPMs it should get a little colder but we will see. For anyone out there debating on replacing the AC system there selves I can tell you it really isn't hard at all. Time consuming but not hard. I would rather do this job than a oil cooler or injector cups any day of the week. I now have a whole new system for probably half the price of what it would cost to have a shop do it, and all the tools to do it again whenever another truck needs it. Will report back tomorrow after towing all day, thanks again

 

Do you have the max cold mod done yet? It's where you plumb a bypass for the heater core to prevent the hot coolant circulating into the cab and warming things unnecessarily. The fresh air vent can also contribute to less than ideal AC performance. I actually disconnected the actuator and screwed the flap shut to permanently fix that possibility. Now it's either max cold or max hot which is just how I like it for life in Oklahoma. Where we got two kinds of weather, effing hot or effing cold and if you don't like the weather here, just wait a minute.

 

　　lord i know that feeling. japan is the same way... only good thing is a the cabin in the summer the temps are about 10ºc cooler than at sea level.

 

Have you read this thread already by the way?
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...r-testing.html

 

I just use a 1/4 turn ball valve and don’t put ANY hot coolant in the cab during the summer.

 

Yeah I actually found some 3 way valves and made a fancy control loop so the coolant still got to circulate. Not sure it really makes any difference one way or the other, but the 3 way valves are kinda cool all the same.

 

Same here. 3/4 inch brass ball valve with barb fittings installed at each end. Stops ANY flow of coolant into the cab in the AZ summers we get around here.

 

bowchickabowwow.