Thank you for the info. It’s a cutaway E350 van chassis that only has front air. Otherwise the RV part has a 120v rooftop AC. Maybe Ford kept the more primitive expansion valve system in the vans to save them the trouble of redesigning the HVAC in the middle of such a long running body style?

From what I can tell, there’s a total of 4 hose sections, a compressor, condenser, dryer, expansion valve, and evaporator. Sounds like clean the parts and hoses, add the correct amount of PAG oil, reassemble with green o-rings, seal it up, and see if it’ll hold a vacuum. If it does, add the correct amount of R134a.

 

I ran an A/C parts distributor warehouse for 11 years at the height of the R134a conversion era.
'97-2007

The owner of the company, very intelligent man actually invented an A/C compressor to replace
the faulty GM compressor that was prevalent in the GM trucks. The HT-6 compressor that was
junk from day one. That being said, his fool proof conversion to R134a was to never allow the
low side to exceed 35PSI on the hottest most humid day. If your A/C is not cooling at 35PSI
or lower, you needed more cooling capacity on the condenser. He also recommended only
synthetic PAG 150 for all compressors. We sold A/C compressors new and reman worldwide.
Hancock Industries was the company name, later changed to Hodyon dba Hancock Industries.
With the low side at 35PSI or lower, the high side will work itself out.

 

Your condenser should be a serpentine style, keep it. Always flush all of your A/C system, especially everything in the rear.
take out the orifices and exp valves then flush.

 

Thank you! Do you have any recommendations for cleaning solutions?

 

As soon as the exhaust manifolds are back I’ll test fit the engine back into the bay with the iron intake to check the overhead clearance. I’d like to install the motor with the aluminum intake on but the carb flange for the lift plate sits about 3/4 inches higher than stock. Add that to the new motor mount studs which are an extra 1/2 longer than the old ones, and that’s 1.5” more lift required for installation than removal and I’d like to size that up before game day. I’d also like to prime the oil system on the engine stand then stab the dizzy before final installation so it will be good to see about clearance problems with the oil filter and dizzy on the dry run too.

Maybe I’ll feel different down the road, but stock rockers would have been cheaper and easier. Keeping the tent style stock valve covers required some custom body work around the top center bolt hole for clearance. I’m grateful they fit, because aftermarket square style covers would be a problem.

Speaking of problems, sometimes they come disguised as bargains. Take for example a pair of new cast iron exhaust manifolds, a pair! for $190.00 with free shipping to my door! Bargain! Foolish me glanced at them on arrival to confirm no shipping damage, but failed to detect they weren’t flat, one side was missing the spot facing for bolt heads,.. and who wants excessively big knobby and totally unnecessary bolt heads sticking out, only to interfere with the servicing the spark plugs. Really?! So double the price after machining them flat and installing flush plugs in place of the protruding ****-strocities, And I still got to do the port matching.

 

We had a product that was exclusively for flushing the a/c system. It's been too long, I do not remember.
Any automotive A/C parts supplier should have it in stock.

 

I've had excellent results with this stuff:


It’s available from any parts store or online vendor. It’s an aerosol with a hose and tapered adapter to fit any hose or tube.

You can also get it in a regular bottle but it requires a special pressurized dispenser. The aerosol is probably more cost effective for single projects.

 

Pretty sure that is what I used and picked it up at the local auto parts store.
Dave ----

 

Nice, Thank you Karl for the recommendation and Dave for the second. I will get some.

 

Be sure to flush into a clean rag, one, so you can see what comes out, and two, so you can tell when it's clean.
You must flush until it comes out clean. My memory is coming back a little, our flush was in a gallon jug, and we
sold a kit to use the shop's compressed air to push it through. Pretty sure you'll want to flush it backwards to the
flow of freon. What type of compressor is on it? Some of the Ford compressors had a lot of teflon parts inside,
when those compressors come apart they pretty much destroy everything with debris. Hopefully on a conversion
van they used a big Sanden, like an SD510 or the like. There are a ton of Sanden conversion brackets for almost
everything.

 

I am sure you know all about evacuating the system.

 

This is pretty close to the flush gun we sold
https://www.refrigerantguys.com/Reus...-p/91046-A.htm

I'm not sure how dirty your system is, or how much an aerosol can of flush costs.
This may save you money and you can reuse it. I think they were 10-20 bucks when
I was selling them.

 

Update: One step forward, two steps back.

Alternator bracket. The only thing I like less than the giant bulky stock alternator bracket, is the aluminum aftermarket bracket. Maybe it’s designed for a car motor and not a truck motor because the pulley grooves don’t line up. I also really, really don’t like that it uses a wet water pump bolt as a mounting bolt, and I also don’t like the mix of 3 sizes of allen head bolts. At this point I think I’ll just re-use the enormous, ugly, factory bracket that worked fine for 40 years and be done with it. I initiated a return to e-bay and they refunded my money and let me keep the bracket. Crazy.

Intake manifold install failure. I like things neat and tidy and was taught excessive RTV is to be avoided… so squirting a wad of RTV like toothpaste across the china walls for the end seals is outside my comfort zone and now it looks like my 3 yr old grandson did it. Plus I torqued it to 25 ft lbs just like the instructions say, only to find out that’s too much when using the recommended anti-seize and I really should be 18 to 20 ft pounds to account for the thread lube properties of the anti-seize. So why don’t they include that tiny fact in the instructions? IDK, but today I’ll take it back apart, inspect for over torque damage, and use the alt bracket refund money to buy another intake gasket and tube of grey permatex 90 min right stuff and try it over again.

Thermostat water neck. Since the thermal vacuum switches were seized into the original I bought a doorman replacement. However, it’s a porous crap looking casting with bumps and restrictions inside the water passage. Fortunately after soaking in liquid wrench for a couple weeks I got the thermal switches out of the stock housing so I can re-use it now. Sorry Dorman, but yours is getting returned.

 

For the Alt bracket, can you cut down the OEM one to make it look better ?

For the intake bolts, is 25ftlbs really to much for them, even with anti-seize...

If your worried about to much RTV, just trim it off after it cures... being careful about to much on the inside. I assume you let it "tack-up" for say 20 minutes before dropping the manifold on...

Thinking more about the Doorman T'stat neck, I think someone else mentioned that same thing years ago.

 

You are over thinking the torque thing, it will be fine what you did. If you do not want to use the RTV only on the china walls, you can use the gaskets. Just go buy some of that gasket sealer that is yellow. It is more like a contact cement and comes in a tube. That will glue the end gaskets in place so they do not squeeze out. That is the reason people use the rtv only. But you still need to use some daubs of rtv where the china wall gaskets meet up with the side gaskets. And I would put a very thin smear of rtv around any ports on the sides that have coolant. I have never messed with a 460. I know the 351c/351m/400 engines did not have coolant in the manifold. But the 260/289/302/351w did, and to guarantee no leaks, a very thin smear is recommended around any water passages. Don't put anything on the fueling passages.