Date:         Sat, 3 Dec 1994 15:54:17 -0600 (CST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Gerald Skerbitz <gsker@lenti>
Subject:      Re: Coolant Flush and Fill (Post Mortem)

On Sat, 3 Dec 1994, Donald Baxter wrote:

> Emergency over, when I say Post-mortem I may mean it.  The FAQ and 
> Bentley say "Raise the front end at least 40 cm higher than the rear..."  
> perhaps this should read raise the REAR axle 40 cm higher than the rear.  
> I certainly tried raising the front of the vehicle and of course got no 
> coolant to bleed.

Yup.  Is there someone who is raising the rear?  Actually, it would seem
to me that raising the rear makes more sense, but I've always raised the 
front.  How do you get your engine to overheat, though? <grin> I can't 
get mine warm enough.  I just checked the archives of the vanagon list 
and found many reference to different ways to bleed the cooling system, 
and they all say raise the front higher than the rear.  One even says 
explicitly "raise the front 18" higher than the rear not the other way 
around!".

> What I am afraid of, however, is now when I start the engine, until it 
> warms up I get these gentle puffs of white smoke coming from the exhaust, 
> until the engine warms, the steam comes out briefly even when I start the 
> engine warm.  I have probably overheated my engine in a vain attempt to 
> fill 2 gallons of blue coolant with the FRONT of the vehicle raised 40 cm 
> higher than the rear.

I never got 2 gallons in mine.  Of course, the bleeding thing is weird to me
anway.  If I open my expansion tank while the engine is running, coolant 
runs all over the ground, so how can one bleed it?  Even revving it 
really high, it runs all over the ground. Maybe I don't have the front 
raised high enough?  I like the coke bottle idea, but the same goes 
there.  If I open the bleed screw at the front, coolant just pours onto 
the ground ( and would fill the coke bottle in a hurry.)

> Let's clarify this FAQ, please.-- 

Indeed, the more information we can gather on bleeding, the better.  Does 
anyone else raise the rear, and can anyone else say why one 
should/shouldn't do so?  I can think of some reasons, but I have to go 
work on my intake air hose which has a BIG crack in it.  No wonder this 
thing always runs a little rough.


--
Gerry
Gerald Skerbitz <gsker@med.umn.edu> U of MN Med School Admin 6-5379