Got to work last night

by "PartyPooper2012" (PartyPooper2012)
Published 06/23/2017 at 08:04

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STARS: 2

Started tearing into the C5 last night in an attempt to get the AC compressor swapped out.

Got the job mostly done. Sitting here... wondering what all I fucked up.

Manual calls for 9 oz of oil. Threads all over say oil goes to other components, which if true, would be great. That means I can add oil later and not have to remove compressor again.

Compressor came with 3 oz prefilled. Says add more per car manual. Manual is very vague. Says if you removed less than 1 oz of oil, add 2 oz. If you removed more than 1 oz, add what was in there. So if I know new compressor has 3 oz and I don’t drain anything out, I know I would just be adding whatever was in there. 3 oz. no change.

Manual still says 9 oz. My neighbor who is sort of a gear head says just add 4 more oz to compressor. There should already be about 2 oz in the system. So I did. I am hoping that is good enough.

What is confusing also is that when lubing o rings on connectors, it says make sure you don’t get any oil into the refrigerant tubes. OK. If you don’t want it in there, how does oil go from compressor to other components?

Slapped on a new water pump and thermostat too. New thermostat doesn’t look exactly same as old. Old has like a cone shaped valve. New one has gaps in the cone so it seems it might let some coolant through even when it isn’t supposed to.

Speaking of water pump.... FUCK THOSE GASKETS in particular. Took a very long time to position that water pump and not have the gaskets fall into the engine abyss. Didn’t really use torque wrench to tighten it either. Figured I dropped and scuffed those gaskets so much it might leak when I start filling up today and i’m gonna have to re-do the gasket job.

If it doesn’t leak, i’ll let it ride. It’s tight enough

Duesenberg for your time

Replies (2)

"merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc" (merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc)
06/23/2017 at 11:22, STARS: 0

The difference in t stat may be to allow the trapped air out of the system. As for the possibility of leaks, you can always pressurize the system before you add coolant to see if it holds. Paper gasket? If so, did you coat it with rtv? Or the red permatex spray? That stuff helps with the seal and keeps the gasket in place as you position things.

"PartyPooper2012" (PartyPooper2012)
06/23/2017 at 12:19, STARS: 1

There were metal-type gaskets. I didn’t have any sticky stuff on hand... giggity ... so I had to struggle.

Lots of unknowns for tonight when I fill the system with water to see if anything leaks. If all holds, I’ll put coolant in.