Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 08:45:39 -0500
Reply-To: John Rodgers <jhrodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <jhrodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Subject: Re: kaibab trip report + cooling issues
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
If I had that kind of mud and debris in my cooling system, and knew I
would have the hot tempertures and a fair amount of mountain climbing, I
think I would change the water pump. The impellers can't be in the best
of shape.
Good Luck\
John Rodgers
88 GL Driver
bret wrote:
>
> I took my two oldest children (6 and 9 yr) on a overnight trip yesterday
> from St. George, Utah to the Kaibab Plateau (North Rim of the Grand
> Canyon). This was to serve as a shakedown trip, of sorts, for my recently
> acquired 1982 diesel Westfalia. I was curious to see how it would deal
> with the full-on heat of the summer here in this climate. When we left
> St. George (elevation 2700 feet) it was over 100 deg F. As we began to
> climb the Hurricane Fault, about a 1000 foot elevation transition, it
> became apparent that I would need to watch the heat gauge. The LED began
> flashing. I was able to (mostly) keep the flashing off by turning the
> cabin heat on full bore. In this heat it really didn't seem to make much
> of a difference, comfort wise, anyway. We continued to have trouble the
> entire climb.
>
> With many stops we finally made it to Jacob's Lake on the
> Kaibab at an elevation of about 8000 feet. The air was sweetly cool at
> this elevation. Slow deliberate travel in the hot house diesel Westfalia
> made the arrival in the cool pine forest more of a treat than past trips I
> have made there in a shiny new air conditioned Honda at 80 mph. It felt
> like we had earned the destination! We stayed at a US Forest Service
> campground. It cooled to the 50s (deg F) that evening and was perfect
> sleeping temperature. The stars were bright and the evening meal
> delicious.
>
> We drove straight back home the next morning. Naturally I was interested
> in solving the cooling issue. This afternoon I looked around on the web
> and decided I should make sure my cooling system was purged of air. I
> warmed up the van and pulled off the grill. I thought while I was at it,
> I would rinse off the radiator. I took a nozzle to the radiator and found
> that not only bugs were rinsing out, but lots and lots of mud, sand and
> twigs. I rinsed for at least 1/2 hour before the water ran clear. I
> should mention here that I had found this kind of debris packed underneath
> the chassis earlier. It never occurred to me that it would also be in the
> radiator. My current theory is that the van was in a flash flood when it
> belonged to a previous owner who lived in Springdale, Utah (next to Zion
> National Park).
>
> I was able to purge a small amount of air from the system. With that and
> the removal of the mud, I am hoping the cooling system will perform better
> the next trip.
>
> -bret
|