I have already started removing everything to get the engine out and realized I forgot to have the AC discharged. How should I do it?

 

well, you really only have two options the way I see it. tow it to a shop to have it evacuated (this is the right way) or crack a pipe fitting loose and twist the pipe loose. hopefully you can get it to release the press. w/o taking the pipe off (the easy/dangerous way) it will spray pag oil though, which willl be like misting the eng. with rear end fluid. slightly messy, but thats what needs to be done at this point unless you want to pay for towing. ofcourse, I dont know how far apart it is, you could reassemble it to drive it to a shop? good luck.

 

get it evaced.. best best way. trust me you do NOT wanna get that stuff in your eye.. trust me. I ahve already had it happen at work once cause my boss assured me that it was empty. if you HAVE TO.. just go to th elow side (big hose) service port and press the valve in. it;s better the craking a line cause only a little will come out at once compared to the hole line going poof from the pressure..

 

Best way is to evacuate it to keep it out of the atmosphere. R-134 is not as bad on the ozone as the 22 or 12 but more than likely its still not good.
On the other hand the easiest thing to do is crack it open. (Id push the shrader valve open to do this) make sure theres a rag over it though bc it will blow a little ref oil out.

 

When we took out my engine we just stuck a screw driver down into that pressure valve or whatever, it turned out tottaly OK. Just do it slow and be cautious.

 

What if your AC hasn't worked since 99' (Compressor gone) and you're just now fixing it. First attempt the fix it, before I knew it was bad was to recharge it and I was told it would'nt hold a charge. Should I still be worried about releaving the pressure?

 

still be cautious, but more then likely there will be no press. still take there advise and use the service port to make sure. if your not gonna fix it, take it off while the eng. is out. it'll free up TONS of room and save quite a bit of weight. I like my a/c too much to take it out at this point.

 

Thanks for the replys. I wrapped the low pressure port with an old towel and used my breaker bar with a small torqs bit on the end to depress the valve. Worked very well.

Now does anyone know what I can use to cap the ports where the high and low pressure hardlines go into the firewall? I am not putting the AC back on.