Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:29:39 -0700
Reply-To: Greg Baxter <gregbaxter@SHAW.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Greg Baxter <gregbaxter@SHAW.CA>
Subject: Re: 87 Syncro Westy Puking Coolant
In-Reply-To: <bb8.3b71a323.360f60cd@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
First - thanks to everyone with their help and suggestions on this. I
sorta feel like the guy in the Verizon commercial with my peeps behind
me backing me up.
I'll be replacing the new cap with another on Tuesday in the hopes that
this is the problem, but I've got a feeling (hope?) that Frank's
diagnosis is correct on this. After I read this yesterday, I thought
some more about it, and it makes a bit more sense. One thing that I
neglected to add is that I've got a dealer-diagnosed exhaust leak, which
only manifests itself when engine braking. I hear all sorts of snaps and
crackles, but mostly pops. Likely not coincidentally, following these
pops, I end up with the coolant light on after a long run of this engine
braking. My guess is that the pops are a result of the air that is being
sucked in (?) and eventually displacing the coolant in the expansion
tank. These small green o-rings - what does Mr. Bentley call them? I'd
like to take a look and get an idea of what I'm looking at here.
You are correct, Frank - any amount of normal driving or idling and I
can't get this to happen. When bleeding it the other day after
installing your pipe, it was idling for about 1/2 hour, the cooling fan
cycled a bunch of times, and all seemed right with the world.
In a somewhat related matter, in the hopes of avoiding the coolant
problem, I tried coasting the downhills and just relying on my brakes to
slow the van down. Big mistake - at the bottom of a particularly nasty
9% grade I was the lucky recipient of brake fade (which I thought I'd
experienced once in my Scirocco, but nothing like this...) and the
lovely smell of burning brakes filled the air. I pulled over for 15
minutes for a cool down session and rethought my options. I'd rather
have to bleed the coolant and do all of the rest of the procedure than
miss a corner because of having no brakes. So another question is this -
are the slotted brakes/performance pads a worthwhile upgrade, or should
i hold out for a big brake kit? Before leaving, I tested the brake fluid
and it showed up as < 1% moisture, so I don't think a bleed would have
done much to remedy this situation.
Thanks again to everyone for all of their responses. I'll do a proper
introduction once I'm settled in later this week.
Cheers!
Greg
87 Syncro Westy 'Bastian'
RAlanen@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 26/09/2008 4:44:49 P.M. Central Standard Time,
> LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM writes:
>
> Greg, either your expansion tank cap is defective or you have
> a compression leak into the coolant system. I've seen this twice this
> year and both times it was one or more of the small green O-rings at
> the top of the cylinder barrels that had blown out. A leak down test
> may not show this leak as it is only occurring under high engine temps
> and high compression in the cylinders. And I bet if you let it sit
> idling for any length of time it acts normally.
>
>
>
>
> >>>>>>>>I'm a first time poster - I've been lurking for the past
> month or so since we bought Bastian, our new toy. On both of our
> major trips, I've been plauged with this problem.
>
> After a few hours of driving - we're obviously up to temperature -
> when compression braking downhill, I end up with all of the
> coolant in the filler tank, and none in the expansion tank. It
> seems that the coolant is being pushed out of the expansion tank
> when it's working hard, but when things start to cool down (?) and
> the coolant shrinks (?) the coolant is not being drawn from the
> filler tank, and I end up with a dry expansion tank and a blinking
> coolant light, which leads to a little bit of swearing and a quick
> pull-over to the side of the road.
>
> I can siphon the coolant out of the filler tank by removing the
> hose from the expansion cap and drawing it into a bottle. I can't
> open the filler tank as the coolant level is higher than the
> filler cap. The back of the Westy is covered in specks of coolant.
> Once I've manually equilabrated the coolant level, we're good to
> go until the next downhill run or cool-down period, and then this
> starts all over again.
>
> Between trips, over the past month I've done the following:
>
> New expansion tank cap;
> New hose between filler tank and expansion tank;
> New Thermostat;
> New Pipe between water pipe & thermostat housing; (Thanks Frank!)
> New hose between this pipe and the t-stat housing;
> New Gauge temperature sender;
> Bleeding, bleeding, bleeding.
>
> When I replaced the water pipe, I did a poor job of reseating a
> clamp, so I lost some coolant yesterday. I reseated the clamp
> properly topped it up and rebled the system - this was all before
> the expansion tank ran dry yesterday.
>
> What could be causing this phenomenon?
>
> I'm currently parked in Osoyoos BC at a park with wireless, but I
> can't send outgoing emails. I'm also a digester, so please cc: any
> responses to this pmail account.<<<<<<<<<
>
>
>
> Cheers, * *
>
> Frank Condelli
> Almonte, Ontario, Canada
> '87 Westy & Lionel Trains (Collection for sale
> <http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/trainsal.htm>)
> Frank Condelli & Associates
> <http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/busindex.html> - Vanagon/Vanagon
> Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley
> Vanagon Stainless Steel Exhaust Systems
> <http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/exhaust.htm>
> BusFusion <http://members.aol.com/BusFusion/bfhome.htm> a VW Camper
> camping event, Almonte, ON, June 12 ~ 15, 2008
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