DC,

My worry about your a/c is not whether or not it performs well enough to keep you comfortable. My concern is for the long term health of the unit.

When you do not evacuate and remove moisture, the moisture left behind combines with the refrigerant to form an acid. This acid will eventually eat its way through the aluminum components of your system, particularly the evaporator, which is the most difficult component to change. Depending upon how much moisture is in the system, the acid might take six months to cause problems or six years, but it's like death and taxes, it's gonna happen.

The next problem often invoked by the use of these kits is the fact that the mineral oil is not removed to make room for the oil that will properly circulate with r134. In some cases the mineral oil will just go to the lowest point in system. In an accumulator system such as most GM cars, the excess mineral oil ends up in the bottom of the accumulator and seems to not cause problems. An accumulator is at a different point in the system than a filter drier, the filter has liquid, and it becomes more difficult for it to handle the accumulated oil.

I am very sincere when I wish you good luck with this conversion, but time has shown that the term used on the air conditioning web sites for these kits is correct. They call them "Death Kits." This does not mean death to the driver, it means death to the air conditioner.

Best of luck,