Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 13:20:11 -0400
Reply-To: John Parson <bentway@IWON.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Parson <bentway@IWON.COM>
Subject: Re: disappearing coolant??
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I had a "disappearing coolant" problem too. At first, I was afraid it was going in to the combutstion, as I could see no leaks, but I had no white smoke. Then, I happened to pull over and look under the van after climbing a mountain. The leak was where the hose clamp clamps the rubber tube to the long metal tube by the rear tire. It only leaked when the van was very hot, and the pressure was high. A couple of screwdriver turns fixed it.
--- On Fri 09/12, Malcolm Stebbins < mwstebbins@YAHOO.COM > wrote:
From: Malcolm Stebbins [mailto: mwstebbins@YAHOO.COM]
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 08:28:21 -0700
Subject: Re: disappearing coolant??
> It's not true that it's (coolant overflow tank) not<br>> used in normal driving, or that it only gets<br>> coolant in it in an overheating situation.<br><br>It is my understanding that as the coolant warms,<br>pressure is created in the system. The coolant system<br>is designed to operate under pressure as pressure<br>increases the boiling point of liquid & helps reduce<br>coolant boiling. I have driven my van in both sub<br>zero & over 50 degrees C weather and when the van is<br>moving (read: great amounts of air moving over the<br>radiator) this keeps the coolant at a temp that the<br>reservoir cap does not open. Only when I slow to a<br>stop on a hot day with a very hot engine and the heat<br>begins to build, does the radiator cap get enough<br>pressure to open. At least this is my experience and<br>understanding. Correct me if I'm wrong. I would<br>guess that if, at normal operating temps, there is<br>flow to the overflow tank, then maybe the reservoir<br>cap is not holding pressure.<br><br>This is not a difficult experiment. note/mark the<br>coolant level in the overflow tank and the drive in<br>Arizona/Texas in the summer (Egypt anyone???), drive<br>hard up hill on a hot day and then stop, run back and<br>look at the coolant level in the overflow tank. Keep<br>watching as the engine idles, soon the cap will let go<br>and the level in the overflow tank will rise. Once,<br>on a hot day, my water pump belt jumped its track and<br>the engine overheated so badly, and the coolant<br>expanded so much, that it was shooting out of the top<br>of the overflow tank's 3 little holes.<br><br>Anyway, I've been wrong before, but I have had my<br>cooling system fail and I keep a real good eye on it,<br>and this is my experience. Malcolm<br><br>__________________________________<br>Do you Yahoo!?<br>Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software<br>http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com<br>
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