1983 245 ac r134a conversion parts needed

We have a customer that wants his 83 245 converted from r12 to r134a. The volvo kit is nla and that is all our parts department is apparently capable of looking at. I have been tasked with figuring out exactly what is needed to do this. Im finding all sorts of conflicting information regarding swapping evaporators, driers, thread pitches etc... can anyone tell me for sure what parts we are going to need? This car is all original. Thanks in advance.

Did you see this thread? I think it's the most comprehensive resource we have right now:

http://www.forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=356477

rearwheelpeel said:

We have a customer that wants his 83 245 converted from r12 to r134a. The volvo kit is nla and that is all our parts department is apparently capable of looking at. I have been tasked with figuring out exactly what is needed to do this. Im finding all sorts of conflicting information regarding swapping evaporators, driers, thread pitches etc... can anyone tell me for sure what parts we are going to need? This car is all original. Thanks in advance.

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This will really depend on how much or how little you want to work and spend. You can do the conversion with as little as just the refrigerant itself, flushing agent, and ester oil as long as you you have the right tools and don't cut corners. It won't preform very well though. Being in NY you might consider it adequate, but I doubt you would on a hot summer day.

Our '89 already had the dealer installed compressor and TXV which you can still buy from FCP. I flushed my system, replaced the oil, replaced the drier, replaced the fill fittings, drew a vacuum for a couple hours, made sure it held, and filled the system. It's been blowing cool for over a year now. It's hot for back seat passengers in the summer time, but it's adequate for the front on MAX.

I'm not sure if the newer style compressors will work in an '83. You might need new accessory brackets, but I know the early compressors kinda suck. If you don't want to get that invasive in your stock car, I would look into just flushing, vacuuming, and filling with duracool or similar. R-134a probably won't have enough beans.

Just charge the system with Envirosafe ES12A and be done with it. It will get as cold as it did with R-12 and the Envirosafe is less likely to leak. You don't even have to flush the system or change the oil.

Thanks everyone. I’ll have our service manager read through all of this and talk to the customer. He bought the car new from us in 1983 and has kept it in mint condition. He apparently had a stock pile of r-12 that just ran out.

Go onto Envirosafe’s website and read up on ES 12A. It is a direct, drop in replacement refrigerant. There is no point in putting a lot of money into converting that system to something that won’t work anywhere near as well as his current system will with ES-12A in it. ES-12A is cheaper than R-134 and you don’t even have to be licensed to buy it or recharge it.

2manyturbos said:

Go onto Envirosafe?s website and read up on ES 12A. It is a direct, drop in replacement refrigerant. There is no point in putting a lot of money into converting that system to something that won?t work anywhere near as well as his current system will with ES-12A in it. ES-12A is cheaper than R-134 and you don?t even have to be licensed to buy it or recharge it.

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Yeah I?ve been reading about it. This sounds like the best way to go. Thanks!

It is certainly worth a try. If your customer doesn’t like it, then you can discuss the several thousand dollars it’s going to take to retrofit his car. I’ve used ES-12A in Volvo systems and it works great.

+10,000 for ES

Does ES-12A use the same type port as r12 for charging? Also I have 134a gauges. Are r12 adapters available for these gauges?

ES-12 is set up for R134 charging equipment. Just get an R-134 conversion port for the R-12 system and you’re good to go.

Then I'm set, thanks.