I have a 54000 BTU r-22 evaporator on a 95% high efficiency furnace. The furnace instructions show how to set the blower for up to 4 tons of air conditioning. My interpretation is the blower will only support up to 4 tons. My 3.5 ton condenser is dead.

The 3.5 ton worked well on the old furnace but could not keep up after the new furnace was put it. I am being told I need to go with a 4 ton condenser to match my coils that was improperly sized by the previous installer or replace the evaporator with r-410 to stay at 3.5 ton at twice the cost.

My 3.5 ton kept nearly all the time when is was working on the old furnace. Should I stay with 3.5 and R-22? Does this work?
Do I have go to 410 to stay at 3.5.
Should get the 4 ton compressor r22 for those really hot days? On the really hot days running inside temps at 80 was not a problem since the humidity was removed. I live in a Chicago suburb.

There are 3.5 ton R410a units available. What strikes me as odd is you have a 4.5 ton evaporator on a 3.5 ton condenser. It's not unusual to see an evaporator 1/2 ton larger than the condenser but a full ton larger is very odd indeed.