Forgive me if this poat is redundant, I've been trying to access the archives all afternoon with no luck.

I replaced the coolant in my 85 Vanagon yesterday (the coolant level sender had busted off and tons of coolant boiled out). What occured while I was bleeding the system didn't seem right, so want to see what you guys have to say.

First of all, I couldn't find the valve screw in the engine compartment, so only had the valve on the radiator opened. It took over two hours of running the van at 2000 RPM (with the heat on) to get the coolant to flow out of the valve without air bubbles. There would be gaps of 5 minutes or more when nothing but air (no fluid at all) would come out of the valve, then the engine would lose RPMs on it's own, fluid would overflow from the expansion tank, and then foamy bubbles would come out of the radiator valve. This cycle went on and on.

After the van cooled off over night, the top off tank was empty (it was full last night) and the expansion tank is full to the brim, instead of just to the Max line.

Can anyone help me out here?

Thanks,

deb