Frigoboat keel cooler leak

[SV Liberty]

Hi all, its been a few years since I posted. I have a Frigoboat keel cooler system in my Morgan 416 installed as a freezer/spillover system in about 2007. The keel cooler through-hull is in a bilge area of my engine room that regularly collects a couple of inches of water that submerges the top of the keel cooler. I came back from cruising in 2014, and the system has been poorly maintained in recent years. A year or two ago, I was attempting to add a bit of refrigerant, and noticed it bubbling out at the top of the keel cooler where the lines go in. So I am confident I have a leak. After that time, I have not done anything with the system - no vacuum, no additional refrigerant, etc. I also did not (and even as I type this have not) disconnected the quick connect fittings to isolate the keel cooler from the compressor/evaporator plate.

I would like to get the system back in service, and I am planning a haulout for other work. I'm tempted to buy a new keel cooler and have it installed - but I would like to know that I am not installing a new keel cooler into an otherwise old and failed system.

A concern I have is that prior to adding refrigerant, I think I was trying to run the system - and I decided to add the refrigerant when the system would not cool. Could I have sucked in water through the compromised keel cooler, and would that automatically mean my entire system is ruined? If I disconnect the keel cooler from the system, can I put a vacuum pump on the system to see if the compressor and evaporator will hold vacuum (without a keel cooler installed)?

As always, advice from Richard Kollmann (if he is still posting here) is beyond welcome.

Regards to all,
Dave on SV Liberty

[Bowdrie]

Disconnecting the keel cooler, (it's really a condenser,) needed to be the very first thing done.
Once you saw bubbles from that device, proceeding to add refrigerant was/is a lost cause.
That part is on the "high side" of the system, downstream of the compressor, upstream of the evaporator.
Further work will be needed to see if any water reached the evaporator.
A vacuum pump can remove moisture, but it won't remove the salt left behind.