The Vanagon radiator is actually two-in-one design with two cross flow radiators, one mounted behind the other in a single unit. The left side tank connects the two sections to redirect the water flowing out of the back section into the front section, or out of the front into the back, depending on how the hoses are connected. The right side tank is actually two tanks connecting all the cross flow tubes on the front section to the outlet and all the cross flow tubes on the back section to the inlet, or the other way around, depending on how you attach the hoses. I don't know whether the front section is connected to the inlet or the outlet. There must be an optimum arrangement but I don't know for sure and I haven't looked. If the radiator has air in it, the water that enters the inlet tank will flow across and back to the outlet tank through the tubes up to the level of the water in the inlet tank. The reason you need to raise the engine speed up to 2000 when bleeding out the air is to circulate the water in the system fast enough so you create a slight pressure in the radiator to force out the air through the bleed screw even with the cap off the tank in the engine compartment. |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.