Joe, That's a good question - might be a loophole, if one actually wanted to do this. However to me it would be highly undesireable because you would need to contaminate a virgin mineral oil system with POE in order to do the 134a conversion. I'd be more interested in keeping it PAG/POE-free than wanting to use a certain refrigerant. To me, the only advantage of the flammable stuff is cost - it's cheap. ;-)
On a side note, all this discussion about pulling less than 29" vacuum to me seems absurd... if you want the system evacuated properly with as much moisture as possible boiled out, you're not going to get that with a venturi pump (27-28" max) and definitely not from an idling gas engine (20-22" max at idle, imo, unless you're revving it and shutting the throttle.) Only way to get 29+ is with a dedicated vac pump. They're available for rent if you don't want to shell out ~$200 to buy a new one. (flame suit on) -dm > ------------------------------ > Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 13:36:49 -0700 > From: Joe Knight <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [MBZ] R-12 > To: Mercedes mailing list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > I've been under the impression that where otherwise legal you can meet > the EPA standard by first converting an R-12 system to 134a and then > convert to HC. In other words & for practical purposes, empty the > system, install 134 fittings, et voila. Not so? I'm sure I've heard > that argued & don't see anything in the text that would squash that > interpretation. Well, I'll admit that the shortcut 'conversion' might > kinda fly in the face of it, but so what...? > > joe
