Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 21:49:08 -0500
Reply-To: "Dan R. Hall" <electro@WESTAL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Dan R. Hall" <electro@WESTAL.NET>
Subject: Re: MINOR? COOLANT CATASTROPHE HELP NEEDED
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Chris,
Obviously sounds like a failure of the rear heat exchanger or it's associated hoses or the valve.
Not that big of a deal but it is a mess to clean up the interior, under the floors/rugs.
If it is only two miles to your house, I'd fill it with water and ease on over there.
I doubt it would damage the water pump any for a short run but I'd see what the list has to say on that.
But.
If you plan on running it a while until you can fix the leak then by all means fill it up with coolant again.
I don't see what leaving the heat exchanger out of the loop will hurt. That is basically what happens when the heater valve is off, although the valve even when off has a pin hole to allow a wee bit of coolant through there, I guess to prevent stagnation, keep those arteries from clogging.
I hope you are using the recommended phosphate free anti-freeze.
----------------------------------------------------------------
This might be a good time to remind the list that rear heat exchanger leaks however small aren't to be ignored. When you get a whiff of that sickly sweet semi-maple syrupy smell while the rear blower motor is on realize that cooling is leaking back there.
I ignored mine for a while one summer "until I could get around to fixing it." Well, the coolant eventually ran up under the laminated plywood flooring all through the rear cabin area and on behind the walls, soaking the bottoms of the fibreglass insulation. It was a mess. Corrosion jump started any place the paint was scratched. It had eaten a thumb size hole through the floor behind the driver's side wall.
I had to remove the entire interior from the front seats to the tailgate(Unca Joel saw Das Boot in that less the ship shape condition), seating, floor, walls, insulation and grind and scrub the scale off with wire brushes then paint the works with Corroless and a second coat of DeRusto. New insulation and Dyna-mat to cut down on noise and prevent another leak from getting down to the metal.
I also filled gaps and holes in the sheet metal to prevent future leaks from getting back into the walls.
I'd also discovered I had seam leaks in the body panels and fixed that while I was at it.
Dan Hall
'86 Westy Weekender
"Das Boot"
----- Original Message -----
From: Chris ALmida
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 9:05 PM
Subject: MINOR? COOLANT CATASTROPHE HELP NEEDED
Well the wife called about two hours ago to announce that she was stranded in our 84 Westy and there was coolant everywhere. I found her high on a mountain road near our house with coolant dripping from the open slider door. So I proceeded to lift the rear seat and take the cover off of the rear heater.
Sure enough the connections where the hoses and the heater come together were covered in coolant crud and there was a large puddle under the heater. I had done a coolant flush over this past weekend and installed a tee near the front of the Westy between the two heaters; luckily there was already a splice there with a knobbed connector which I replaced with the tee. So I took said connector disconnected the hoses from the heater and connected them together. This allowed me to start up the Westy , turn it around and then coast it all the way down the hill (5 miles) the temp gauge was buried to the right and the coolant level light was flashing so I ran the engine as little as possible from the bottom of the hill to a gas station about half a mile up the road. It now sits parked in front of the station.
My question is what best to do next? Should I just fill it with straight coolant still? Can I run it with the heater by passed until I sort out what part failed and replace it? (Connecting two straight hoses with a plastic straight connector creates a slight kink in the hose) Should I risk limping it home after it cools (maybe two miles mostly flat a little gradual rise)? Can I just top it off till it's the right level again or should I now re flush it again to make sure I get proper mixture? What about mixing coolant types? I filled it with the sierra brand but live in a small town and can't get any more until tomorrow when I head out to the big city. The gas station where it is parked sells a brand that is safe for aluminum engines but uses EG instead of PG.
Sorry for all the questions but I don't want to make a bad situation worse and am a little paranoid about blowing the heads or something.
