Afternoon chaps. Working towards getting the engine out of our sierra 4x4 v6 2.8i. It has air conditioning, and haynes book of lies mostly says "NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS" about that system. I don't think it's even mentioned in the engine removal instructions, but there it is quite solidly bolted to the engine, and the cooler is at the front which we want to chop out to extract the engine.

Anyone with any clues about what I should do / can get away with? I assume if I disconnect any hoses I'm going to blow a load of freon off into the atmosphere or something. My best idea so far is just to try and unbolt everthing and gaffer it to the side of the engine bay out of the way.

Thoughts? catcalls? fruit-throwing?

do you recon a little bit of freon is going to put gloabl warming over the edge ?



Id be more concerned that you could vent it safely rather than where it went. When I had to release the high pressure fluid from a metro hydro suspension, I used the end and pipe off an old foot pump with a pair of strong gloves.

The pump end went on the bleed valve - same as a car tyre type - and the pipe ducted the fluid safely away.

I suggest gloves as you dont want any pressurised crap being forced thro your skin into your bloodstream.

Im no expert in freon - at all! Thats just what I would do. You may be well advised to do a web search on pitfalls and safety issues.....


atb

steve

If the refrigerant is R134A, get it drained by a professional or you will die a long and lingering death, if it is the older stuff (R1?) you will only damage the ozone layer about 60,000 feet above your head.

Cars with R134A have highly visible warnings usually on the slam panel, and it came in about 5 years ago.

Once drained by a professional, or just by undoing the unions (don't smoke!), its just a matter of stripping away the unwanted parts.

Mark

This may be an obvious question but I didn't think of it so I'll mention it...!

Does the air con acutally work on your donor?

On my XR4x4 I messed around for ages wrapping heavy rags around the longest spanner I could on the unions only to be disappointed when bugger all happened. Would seem the car, having been neglected for a few years, hadn't had a refill for years!

Chris

It has a panel that says WARNING 134A AIR CONDITIONING so sounds like it's the nasty stuff. haynes says something about the refrigerant being non-toxic unless it comes in contact with a naked light, when it becomes highly toxic.

Don't know if the a/c works, but it was missing its drive belt when we got the car, and there was distinct rust on the compressor.. as if it hadn't been connected for some time.

If getting it drained by a pro involves taking it somewhere, that's not possible. I'm inclined to see if we can get away with just lifting the stuff off to one side and lashing it down while we remove the engine forwards.
If that fails we could drop the engine as per the book of lies instead, shouldn't be such an issue then.

Already found the council has a nice man with a crane who will take the car away for 23 quid, I am quite happy to make the aircon his problem if it doesn't have to be ours.

R134A produces Phosgene gas if heated, ie through a fag, and you die quickly. If inhaled when cool, it will only give you rampant lung cancer - Leave the stuff to the pro's to remove, if you take the car to them it shoud only be £10-15, if they come out to you £30-40. Money well spent I would say!

Hello

Slightly off topic - but I was just wondering what all you guys (chrisW, blueshift) taking lovely 4x4s apart are doing with the 4x4 sumps plus shafts and gubbins that go through them, speedo cables, front diff and shafts, and the little front propshaft. I'd hate to see all that lovely gubbins getting scrapped cos I'd be well interested in some of it for spares for my 4x4 locost.

Speedo cable and sump mounted bearing in particular cos mine are knackered.

Cheers

Liam

Liam, don't worry I haven't forgotten about you Took the speedo cable off today and put it aside and even took a picture for you (not uploaded yet). You going to donnington? could bring the speedo cable certainly, and mebby the sumpy bits if we get that far by the weekend.

By the way, for the moment we have chopped the a/c rad mounts and unbolted the compressor and folded (carefully!) the whole lot on top of the fuel distributor/air cleaner using the play in the flexy hoses. Should give us enough space to get the engine out, then we can lash it back in under the bonnet and let crane man take it.

we are prepared to run if we hear hissing. If you don't hear from mackie or me again then our plan was not a good one.

yours with fingers crossed and nose pinched,

blueshift

[Edited on 11/9/03 by blueshift]