Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 19:22:41 -0600
Reply-To: populuxe <populuxe@EXECPC.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: populuxe <populuxe@EXECPC.COM>
Organization: ExecPC
Subject: Re: coolant type--i give up
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
thanks for the suggestions everyone....
so,
coolant types:
blue: class action law suite by original owners.
green: no good
orange: eats solder in after market radiators
sierra(green): no good either
and the winner is.........
sounds like the best is the orange dex-cool type. could eat up certain
after market radiators.
now,dex-cool with silicates or w/o silicates(ha ha)
still very confusing. anything someone says to use, someone else says
its no good.
i think zerex has a type(g-05?) that is compatable (with the green)w/o
doing a real system flush.
and then you can eventually move to the orange stuff.
because of not reaching a consensus, i topped off with what got the 90
wbx to where it is(145k)--green. had some work done(dealer) to replace
the steel coolant tube in the engine bay that returns water from the htr
cores etc.in september--probally a gallon of new coolant. and now my
recent repair * (htr return hose must have gotten pushed/pulled and
ended up in contact w/ cv boot (why is it literally every time i get
a repair done it leads to something else getting screwed up?? day two
after purchase: i needed a rush oil change because the van was sitting
for about 2 years and of course i wanted to drive it 150 miles--yep the
quick lube screwed it up. lost the special oil plug and carefully
swapped in a full-size metric bolt w/o gasket. at least it was so big
the only thing they could tighten it w/ was a needle nose plyers--true.
sorry, i digress)) * another gal.+ of coolant (mixed 50/50) so i
think i've got enough new stuff in it until my next unscheduled
"top-off".
i did my research before buying and expected to do some "coolant
related" repair.
like i told the p.o.; i'm not buying your van, i'm just taking over the
maintenance. he gave me a very good deal considering i could drive it
away and dust off the cob webs--90 multivan westfalia.
other than the cooling system misstep the vanagon is great. mini-van
owners drool when they see the interior space. we have two little kids,
its perfect for shuffling them in and out, dependable, has plenty of
power, has great heat. i could go on and on.
as to "the dreaded head drip" and bar's leak: hey, what do you have to
lose. maybe a year of a leaky worrysome wbx motor?? if your cooling
system is so gunked up that one jar of bar's leak plugs something up you
have got other issues. worked so far for me; 1 month and about 700
miles. i'd never add more, it's a one shot desperation measure.
the next step is sitting in a vw blue crate in my shed. as soon as i
recover from the purchase of the new 2.1 i'll get it installed. but the
present motor runs perfect, i hate to tear out what's known and
satisfactory and go with the untried new motor. but i do want to skip
the head r&r.
besides, i still don't know which coolant to fill up the new motor
with(ha ha).
chris c