Well as I feared the Compressor on the Geothermal unit is toast. When its starts you can hear stuff raddling around inside it. Since the compressor is the heart of the unit and givin the unit is 18 years old, it's proably better to replace the system rather than hope I can get a replacement compressor for it and hope nothing else breaks. I should get some replacement prices Monday for a new system, so my question is what the old system is worth? Before you say nothing, there quite a bit of Copper, Nickel, and Aluminum inside it that could be worth a few dollars at a scrap yard. Insead of having the installers drag it away, I just want to get them to drain the freon and drop it next to the garage so I can strip it. Anyone have a ballpark idea how much copper, nickel and aluminum is contained in a standard 5 ton unit? I also just replaced the Fan/Blower 6 months ago, surely that's worth something on the 2nd hand market. 

Now I just have to figure out where I'm going to get the cash for the new system, I figure a couple of banks and liquor stores would cover it.... or I could take out a loan against my 401k plan...

Just tell the installers you know it has scrap value and you want a trade-in allowance which accounts for that. You're talking maybe $100. They have to recover the refrigerant anyway, by law, assuming it is R22.

I wouldn't rule out just having the compressor replaced...you might be talking $1k instead of $4k or so. The bank or liquor store route could set you up so that someone else (the facilities engineer at your state penitentiary) worries about your HVAC requirements. Borrowing against a 401k is not such a good idea given current market conditions.

A creative, on-the-ball HVAC tech could swap your dead compressor, likely a reciprocating unit, with a scroll as well as swap your current cap tube or orifice with a thermostatic expansion valve (TXV). That would give you many of the benefits (quieter, more efficient) of a new system at a fraction of the cost. I wouldn't assume that the rest of your system (2 heat exchangers, reversing valve, control board) is on its last legs just because your compressor died.

Heck, it may just be that your compressor mount(s) have failed, letting it bang up on something else...the compressor itself might be OK.