I have really appreciated all of the help I have gotten on this problem so far.
Here is where I am today...
The entire A/C system has been removed from the vehicle while I am rebuilding the engine. I have reassembled it in the bed of the truck to keep it sealed up.
I just bought this truck with a blown engine so I do not have all of the history but I can still talk to the PO. He was up front about the fact that the system was leaking and that he had the shop put in a dye bomb and they could not find the leak. The engine blew a head gasket about a month after that so he never had a chance to check it any further.
I want to find any leaking A/C system parts while I have the engine out. It would be way easier to replace them now then later.
I was an idiot (in my previous posting) and was not using the black light to look for the leaks but now I have one. Thanks for the education! I have always been told that ignorance is curable but stupidity is terminal.
Now that I have looked over the system the right way, I still cannot find any leaks so I am frustrated again. The PO said the system would leak down in about a weeks time, so I would think the leak would be pretty obvious.
Since I could not find any trace of the dye, I opened a fitting and looked inside there. Sure enough the dye was glowing a greenish yellow color so I know the dye is visible under the black light I have.
I looked under the hood above where the compressor mounts and behind the pulley and saw no traces of dye (under the black light) so I am thinking the compressor seal is "probably" not the source of the leak. If it was I would expect that the pulley would have made a nice stripe across the inside of the hood by now. I could be wrong though, God know I have been wrong enough times before.
I think the only part of the system I cannot physically see is the part of the hose that is wrapped in the heat protective shield where it passes over the exhaust manifold. Other than that I am stumped. Should I cut this off and look under it, or is it unlikely that would be a place to leak. Any other ideas?
None of the A/C shops here in town are willing to look at the system while it is out of the car even though they all agree it would be best to replace the leaking parts before I put the engine back in. DUH! Anyway, if anyone has any ideas of what a novice can do at this point I would really appreciate some more guidance.
I wish I had a bottle of nitrogen or something so I could pressurize it and submerge it and look for bubbles. I think that I could handle! I think that would get a little expensive by the time I got the gas, regulator and fitting I would need to do that.
I am still looking for a shop in the North Atlanta Metro area that will look at it for me, but until then, I will keep trying. I still have a few weeks before the engine comes back from the machine shop so I have time to mess with it.
Thanks again everyone.
Tim