I purchased a vintage air system but without compressor. I purchased a brand new pancake compressor (Delphi) and it does not come with oil. The vintage air system has no oil in it either. The compressor says the system should have a total of 8oz. of oil. My question is do I distribute the 8oz. of oil throughout the system? I know the compressor gets 4oz. I already assembled everything and am wondering where to go from here. :confused: I am ready to fire this thing up but want to make sure it is right. Any idea what the pressures should read for this system? Thanks.

im a mechanic and all we do is pour it into the compressor, and spin the clutch alot to make sure its primed, then you should be good. Thats what really needs oil, the condensor and such wont go bad without oil for 10 seconds.

OR you can get an oil charge for your first can. I think I like Rick's idea better on priming the clutch.

Thanks Rick, I was just nervous about putting all 8 oz. of oil in the compressor. I am going to do this tomorrow so I appreciate your response. I will fire it up and let you know how it turns out. Thanks again.

For what it's worth:
Not aftermarket system but I just did a GMC pickup.
The book said 8 oz total, initially 4 ozs in the compressor and rotate by hand 10-12 revolutions., 3.5 ozs in the accumulator.
I also put a couple of ounces in the condenser.

Might not be a good idea to start up a compressor slugging too much oil because they are not designed to pump oil.

Once it's operating, 15% stays suspended in circulation I'm told.

Pour your oil in the suction side of the compressor and definately turn your compressor by hand several revolutions. Good Luck!

When you add oil into the compressor, you have no choice but to rotate the clutch anyways. It wont hold that much oil without rotating it to begin with. Rotating it pulls in more fluid and essentially makes room for more fluid.

Just rotating the clutch won't do anything, you have to rotate the pulley (crankshaft) behind the clutch.

I'm a little leary about how much oil a Delphi compressor can take before damage is done on initial start up from it trying to pump oil.

Not that I know that much about them but I've seen many home A/C compressors with broken valves from trying to pump oil and/or liquid refrigerant.
I ASSUME that's why the GM book says only put 4 oz in the compressor itself.

no, the pulley is just an idle until the clutch engages. You spin the clutch, thats it, spinning the pulley will just give the bearings a tiny workout

The part of the pulley that's attached to the crankshaft.
:)

the crank pulley? spin that and you'll spin the AC pulley, and not the clutch, so nothing will happen.

Sorry Rick I was just trying to be facetious again and it backfired. :o
clutch next to brake pedal :o
compressor crankshaft, not engine crankshaft :o

o ok sorry, lol