Flushing Vintage Air system ?'s

[RossL]

I have a Vintage Air Kit in my 55 Thunderbird. One of the hard lines from my condensor to the dyer was damaged and developed a leak a lot of oil came out with the R134a.

I have a new dryer and lines. I read not to flush the dryer or the compressor.

I have all of the components removed from the car. What is the best way to flush the hoses, evaporator and condenser?

The car is not running at the moment I would prefer to do the flush before I put everything back together.

[JohnHere]

Unless the compressor disintegrated and shed metallic and plastic debris into the system, there's no need to flush the system unless the hard line that leaked also shed debris. Not likely, though.

If you have a parallel-flow condenser, it can't be flushed in any case. It must be replaced, as does the receiver/dryer.

[RossL]

Vintage Air suggested to flush the system. I beleive they said this to ensure all of the oil is out of the system before it's recharged.

There was no damage to the compressor. I highly doubt any debris was introduced by the line.

This is the description for the condenser "Condenser, 14” x 18”, Parallel Flow". Is this the type that cannot be flushed? Would it be worth trying to blow some compressed air to get any oil out? (I already purchased a dryer)

https://vintageair.com/1955-57-ford-thu ... ith-drier/

[JohnHere]

Vintage Air suggested to flush the system. I beleive they said this to ensure all of the oil is out of the system before it's recharged.

Okay. Only you know why you installed the Vintage Air system, and then removed everything—a very unusual procedure and a lot of work.

Did you charge and run the system while it was installed? If not, then there won't be any oil inside the components (except possibly the compressor) unless you oil-balanced the system—that is, added some oil to each component.

To reinstall the system in its "dry" state, or as it was when new—all of the oil removed from the components—then (presuming oil is indeed inside the system components) you would have to flush the lines and evaporator, drain the compressor (compressors, and the R/D, can't be solvent flushed, as you mentioned), and replace the condenser (see the last paragraph for an alternate plan).

I'm afraid that some solvent might remain in the PF condenser should you attempt to flush it. Any remaining solvent would contaminate the fresh oil and refrigerant. To be safe, I recommend just replacing it. The TXV should be all right as is, and you have a new R/D to install. That should do it.

One comment about the R/D: Un-cap and install it last.

There was no damage to the compressor. I highly doubt any debris was introduced by the line.

Therefore, no debris is floating around the system, only (possibly) the oil.

This is the description for the condenser "Condenser, 14” x 18”, Parallel Flow". Is this the type that cannot be flushed? Would it be worth trying to blow some compressed air to get any oil out? (I already purchased a dryer)

Under normal circumstances, a serpentine-style condenser could be flushed if you had a catastrophic compressor failure. However, the micro-passages inside a PF condenser can't be flushed, mainly because any debris can't make it through the tiny passages and won't be removed. Theoretically, oil could be solvent-flushed to remove it since it's a liquid. However, my fear is that some solvent will remain behind, contaminating the new refrigerant and oil, as mentioned above.

What you could do is re-use the V.A. PF condenser (presuming it contains some unknown amount of oil, but without solvent-flushing it) and subtract, say, one fluid-ounce of oil from the total amount that you ultimately put back in the system. That should get you close to the V.A. specification.