Date:         Mon, 1 Apr 2002 01:26:03 -0500
Reply-To:     Ben huot <huotx@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ben huot <huotx@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Subject:      Bleeding the damn coolant system! part 2
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

First, thank you all for you're comment, specially Tim Hannink, Andrew Fox,
Adam P, Ed sato and the other 8/9 guys who tried to help with your advices.

This list is great and I hope to do my share to help other in the future…
(I already started I think) http://www3.sympatico.ca/huotx/engine1.htm

Fist let me tell you that I spend half of my day trying to properly bleed
the van…(nice Easter day!!! But the rest of the day was quite nice, quite
warm and sunny up here , 60F) with no success of having heat in the front
radiator after loosing all my spare 4liter (1gallon) coolant.

Ok, first thing first. I did bleed many, many engine in the past so I know
about proper bleeding. (I taught I known better!!!)

If you take a look at my site you will see that almost all related cooling
part are new and OEM. The rear of the engine get proper coolant running and
heat, both heating core have plenty of heat if valve are open (I basically
cooled the van with those 2 heater at full blast). The temp needle (gauge)
in the dash shows a bit more than half (just over the red level coolant
light), never it did get higher than 2/3, even with both heater fan close.
(But no heat at the front) Bleeding was done to the rear heater (messy) and
I am pretty sure that it is bleed properly.

Here is my problem:
The front radiator stays cold like ice (the rear is fully warm, needle over
the cooling level light) until I open the front bleeder screw for more than
10 minute, after it starting to get hotter and finally the front radiator
fan start at first speed. It's not very hot here so I can keep decent
coolant temperature with both heater core fans running at full blast.

Keep in mind that for all that time the coolant going out from the bleeding
screw at the front is bubble free!!!! So I close the front bleeder and
fully open the rear engine bleeder on the thermostat housing (rear of van
raise to get remaining air out) and it finally get warm but not hot at all.
After I spill (buble free) at least 1 liter (1/3 gallon) by this bleeder I
close this one. Temp needle is always the same, front rad fan as stop,
front rad is getting cooler but engine is still at 2/3. (I know my stuff
and I can tell you that the rear part of the engine is at normal / abit
over operating temperature but not the front)

OK, in between those event the front was raise, the rear was raise and my
""temperament"" was rising also to a critical point (he he he). So I stop
the van, open the front & rear bleeder to see if pressure look ok, OK, look
for bubble, no bubble!!!

So I think that maybe I did finally get the best out of it, I take a nice
cold beer, relax with friend and family and enjoy the sun that I miss a lot
in wintertime. Ok, take her for a spin on the highway full of overpass!!!!!
and like before temperature gets to about 2/3, so I stop on the side of the
freeway to feel the front rad and you know what, it's cold like ice again
(the rear is hot)……………………

So my diagnostic is the following; I don't think I have a clogged front
radiator or any other cooling hose. (The front rad and heater core are 6
month old only and were working fine before)
I get hot coolant to the front if I leave the front bleeding screw open for
a long time, so hot coolant is making is way true from the rear coolant
distributor. I get WARM (not hot) coolant out from the rear bleeder if I
leave this one open for I wile. If I touch the hose coming from the big
metal tube on the left of the engine it's very hot (normal), the bypass
hose that goes from the thermostat housing to the right side distributor is
very hot also, the big front thermostat housing hose that goes to the front
rad is cold to warm…………….

I simply think that my new OEM thermostat is stuck to the close position!!!

Sorry for the long post, I am getting out of idea. I don't think I have
anymore air trap in the system, I know what it does (warm, hot, warm hot
until it finally bleed)

Removing the thermostat tomorrow, testing this one in boiling water and
putting the old one back (I tested the old one today, it's OK). If you read
this post before 9/10am Monday Eastern Time and have others ideas, please
feel free to e-mail me.

Wish me good luck and have a nice Easter Monday, Best regards to you all.
Ben, 87 GL (the "beast" starting today)

http://www3.sympatico.ca/huotx/engine1.htm