106 deg F in the shade! Oklahoma City is HOT! Temperature-wise that is...and, the 113 temp in Weatherford, TX Thursday had SWMBO and I sweating our tushes off in the tepid air oozing out of the vents in Marlene the Wonder Car.

Something isn't right...it seems like this car used to cool off pretty well despite her maroon paint.

So, in an effort to somehow improve the operation of her 134a cooling system, I pulled the blower assembly to inspect the recirc flap with the intention of wedging the damned thing shut.

Holding the flap shut has slightly improved the cooling.

But, while I was in there, I ran a toothbrush across the part of the evaporator coils that I could reach. I could only reach the first 1/2 of the coils for cleaning and, after looking at them with a mirror, I realize now that some of my cooling problems are because these coils are about 50% blocked by a 20 year accumulation of Gawd knows what.

Inspecting them with a mirror and flashlight, it looks as if they've had a partial cleaning at some point in the past but, I'll have to pull the evaporator to reach and clean the last 5"-6"

I was also suspicious about the operation of the monovalve and wondered if the thing was periodically allowing some hot coolant to pass through the heater coils. For the time being, I've pinched-off the heater hose running from the recirc pump to the heater.

Cleaning the evap, making sure I had 100% recirc of cabin air and blocking the flow of coolant to the heater have helped the cabin temps a little. Driving around OKC today in 103 deg F temps we had a little better cooling and the in-car temps recovered much quicker than they did yesterday...these aren't permanent fixes since someday, I'll install a parallel flow condenser and convert the climate controls over to manual operation with a set of knobs, cables and valves scavenged out of a low-end 240D.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.