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Date:         Tue, 27 Feb 2001 20:59:40 -0800
Reply-To:     Radish150 <Radish150@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Radish150 <Radish150@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Cooling sytem is cool now,
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854";
              x-mac-creator="4D4F5353"

Hey thanks much to the generous individuals that offered help on the cooling system confusion. Feel like I've been baptized now, both literally and figuratively. Man, it's amazing that thing runs at all, the po had been running it with no flow to the radiator at all, the system was totally air locked. At first I tried the "prestone flush valve in the heater hose" thing and for me anyway it was mostly a waste of time. In the end, after futzing with the flush valve and trying to get the water to run clean, all I did was take off both rad hoses from the thermostat housing, and at the same time disconnect both rad hoses from the plastic pipes near the front of the van. I alternately stuck a garden hose way up into each of the 8 holes, flushing water while plugging whatever I could reach with my hand. Besides getting royally soaked the result was crystal clear water. Then I just plugged everything back together, and started pouring in the orange. It would seem that after disconnecting the afore mentioned four hoses and letting water drain as it may, it takes nearly the perfect amount of orange (two gallons) to make for the desired 50/50 mix. So, after dumping about a gallon and a half into the expansion tank, I raised the rear and ran it with the rear bleed valve open, about 5 minutes of this allowed me to slowly add the other gallon with no boiling or drama. 5 minutes and no more air bubbles in the exp tank so I close the valve. Then rolled it off the ramps and raised the front and took the bolt OUT, and ran it again. Not allot was going on so I dribbled about another half a gallon of water out of the hose directly into the radiator bleed hole with engine running and stuff started happening. Nice bubbles of air and clear water bubbling out, then about the time the water started bubbling orange there was no more air, just orange. Bolt back in, temp gauge correct reading, test drive, 4 miles, park on a perfect incline, crack the bolt, just a bit of air, then just orange. heat in front, heat in the rear, gauge in the middle, perfect. A bit unorthodox (did someone say crude?) but apparently rather effective.

Running pretty nicely now, as an experiment I took drove it with the PS belt off and there IS a slight difference in power feel. I really do find stiff steering annoying though, it always reminds me of a 3/4 ton 59 ford 4x4 with 40 something inch tires I had once, with manual steering. After a while I could bend rebar but it's something I don't feel inclined to revisit. When I was a kid they promised me a new world in the year 2000, least I can have is power steering.

jambo, mark...


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