I second this advice. I bought a reman from R&Y in Florida and it immediately leaked from the seam just like my original one did. They offered to send me another one (at no charge) even though the warranty was gone (it sat on my shelf for quite a while). I told them no, that I would cut my losses and broadcast to the Corvette community to not buy their stuff. So here it is - don't buy their stuff. I bought A new Delphi and rode off into the sunset with cold a/c. Incidentally, if you do this job on an early model and the water pump has never been changed, scrape the stuck-on old gaskets off the block (PITA on the driver's side) and replace them with the newer o-ring type and life will be a lot easier if you need to replace the water pump later.

 

I had a bad experience with an R&Y reman as well, but a new one from anybody should be similar quality to OEM. Remember - AC Delco is just a label.

 

I am not going to put down any aftermarket brands but I will give my perspective as one of the Engineers who was part of the development team that launched the Delphi Harrison V7 compressor for the C5 in 1996. These are not easy products to copy. There are clearances and part fits that are developed over a variety of tests, analysis, and product experience. The aftermarket people probably have technical know how. They probably have manufacturing know how too. If my 22 year old C5 compressor were to need replacement today, I would not gamble on their probable know how. I’d buy the Delphi replacement without question. For me, its just too much labor to hope that an aftermarket compressor will be as good or maybe better. Last time I checked you could buy the Delphi V7 for about $250. You are not talking about hundreds of dollars of price difference between the Delphi and someone else.

If it were my old S10 pickup where the compressor is a 10 minute job to unbolt (and I do my own evac and recharge) maybe I’d consider price of the compressor but it would have to be multiple hundreds of dollars cheaper and my own curiosity to experiment with a reverse engineered replacement.