Date:         Wed, 13 Jun 2001 10:02:13 EDT
Reply-To:     ErikValeur@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Erik Valeur <ErikValeur@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Hi,
              I came up with the following for flushing & filling the coolant
              system on m
Comments: To: vanagon@egroups.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Hi,

I posted this last year, but here it is again. This method works to get all
the air out of the cooling system:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Hi,

I came up with the following for flushing & filling the coolant system on my
84  Vanagon:

1. Remove the spare tire and look up in the space above where it was (if your
spare is under the front, otherwise just look up above the front axle, after
removing any cover/skid plates?). There are two skinny heater hoses which go
to the front heater. The one that does not have the heater control valve in
it has an inline coupling instead. Replace this coupling with one of those
"radiator flush fittings" available at any autoparts store. (If I remember
right, it's a 5/8 hose size. At any rate, they only cost about a buck.) If
you put the flush fitting in with the engine cold, the coolant cap on tight
and the heater control set to cold, only a small amount of coolant will come
out.

2. To drain coolant, open the coolant cap in the engine compartment. (the one
insude the engine compartment, not the one behind the license plate. Set the
heater control to heat, and REMOVE the bleeder screw on the top of the
radiator. (Behind the front top grille.) Remove the cap on the flush fitting.
Catch the coolant in a bucket. CAUTION, the green coolant is poisonous to
pets and other animals. I don't know about the orange stuff...  It is also
illegal to dump the stuff on the ground in most places.

3. To flush the system, you need to make up a short piece of garden hose with
a female thread on each end (or whatever quick connect your garden hose uses
on one end.) The point is you need to be able to connect your hose to the
flush fitting.

4. Connect your garden hose to the flush fitting. Make sure the coolant cap
is off and the radiator bleeder is removed. Turn on the water VERY slowly so
that it flows VERY slowly. The stream of water coming out of an open hose-end
should be about the size of a pencil.) It is VERY important to keep the flow
LOW, otherwise you can build up very high pressure in the system and bust
something expensive...

5. When there is water coming out of both the bleeder plug hole and the
coolant cap opening in the engine compartment, start the engine and let it
idle.

6. When the water coming out both ends is clean, the system has been as
thoroughly flushed as is possible without taking the whole system apart. Turn
off the engine, turn off the water.

7. To fill the system, you have several choices. a.) do it per the manual.
b.) follow one of the procedures posted on the list in the past, or, c.) read
on.

8. Drain the system by removing the hose from the flush fitting. Re-connect
the hose, but don't turn on the water. Pour two gallons (about eight litres)
of orange anti-freeze into the coolant reservoir in the engine compartment.
Save about two cups of the anti-freeze.

7. Turn on the hose again, at an even lower flow than before. Start the
engine and let it idle. When coolant starts to overflow out of the reservoir
in the engine compartment, put the cap on.

8. Go look at the bleeder hole at the top of the radiator, when it stops
sputtering air, and the fluid coming out of it is no longer clear, turn off
the engine and the garden hose. Put the bleeder screw back in.

9. Remove the hose from the flush fitting and replace it with the cap that
came with the fitting. Don't forget the gasket that goes inside the cap! If
you're quick, you will only get a thimbles worth of air into the system.

10. Put the two cups of anti-freeze you saved into the expansion tank behind
the license plate, and top it off with water.

For a discussion of the merits of different kinds of coolant fluids, see the
many postings on this subject on the vanagon list. The main thing is to ONLY
use phosphate free coolant.

I have used the above flushing-filling method on two different vanagons with
the 1.9 liter engine, but I can see no reason why it wouldn't work on the 2.1
liter engine or even on a van with a diesel or an inline engine conversion.
The hardest part of the system to flush is the heater cores and the radiator,
not the engine. There is enough flow through the bleeder opening in the
engine thermostat to allow water to flow through all the hoses.

If you want to comment on this procedure, please E-Mail me directly, since
I'm not always on the list.

Erik V.

82 Diesel Vanagon
88 Vanagon
83 Rabbit GTI
87 Golf
98 NewBeetle