Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 20:11:38 -0700
Reply-To: Craig Oda - Personal email <craigoda@COMMUNITYBUILDERS.INFO>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Craig Oda - Personal email <craigoda@COMMUNITYBUILDERS.INFO>
Subject: Re: coolant loss question
In-Reply-To: <20020714193400.82106.qmail@web14708.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Gary,
I had this problem on my 83 watercooled westy. However, unlike you I
was not enlightened enough to think that it was a problem. The one
similarity with mine is the high speed fan kicking in. I guess that
you don't have any white smoke coming out of your tail pipe when you
first start it up. I had a little bit before the "big incident" which
I'll tell you about soon. However, I thought it was simply
condensation in the engine and nothing to worry about.
When I was off on an 800 mile run, the coolant was going down faster,
but nothing seemed amiss to me. Then, I overheated my van due to a
coolant hose bursting and then I had my billowing smoke problem.
Well, what I think happened was that my head was already cracked and
when I overheated it, the crack got bigger. Just my idea, not really
sure.
Another possibility might be the thin green o-ring on your cylinder
sleeve might have gotten messed up. This would be less costly than a
cracked head.
However, in my case, I SAW WHITE SMOKE coming out of my tailpipe. If
you don't have white smoke, coolant is probably not leaking into your
exhaust.
-- Craig
On Sun, 14 Jul 2002, gary hradek wrote:
> My 87 vanagon has been using coolant for the past two
> years. On average about a cup every 1000 miles. It
> will use more when I am driving it in the mountains
> under a heavy load and tends to run hotter with the
> high speed fan kicking on and off . When it is
> running hotter but never overheating (never has)I can
> smell the slightest whiff of antifreeze coming from
> the front. I have looked everywhere for some
> evidence of coolant loss but I am unable to find
> any.(front and rear heaters, radiators,engine) The
> coolant gets replaced from the very back tank and
> there is no evidence that it boils back into the
> recovery tank or ever boils in the tank with the blue
> cap. I have replaced the thermostat and the blue cap
> and bled the system. I am concerned that the coolant
> is going out the tail pipe but I see no evidence of
> this?
> What is my future here. How long does it take to
> before I have this situation clarified and will it
> strand me somewhere? Any voice of experience is
> appreciated. gary
>
>
>
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>
--
Craig Oda craigoda@communitybuilders.info
VW Info: 1983 VW Westfalia, water-cooled, automatic
http://communitybuilders.dhs.org/craigoda/vw/
