Greg:

Good post. I had a conversation the other day with one of the guys from ACKITS. He too mentioned the condensor you used and reiterated some fundamental aspects of A/C theory that affect cooling when using R-134a, especially in a retro situation.

Increasing pressure increases heat. R134a runs at a higher pressure most notably on the high side..ie...in the condensor. Since a condensor is a heat exchanger(sheds off heat collected in the evaporator), it must be able to deal with the higher heat/pressure created by R-134a.

You can bet that the condensors used in straight-from-the-factory R-134a systems are not the same as older R-12 units.

You're absolutely right about gauges, especially when retrofitting to R-134a. How else are you going to know you've drawn in just 80% of the orig. R-12 charge.

__________________
Mike Murrell
1991 300-SEL - Model 126
M103 - SOHC
"Fräulein"