Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 08:00:27 -0700
Reply-To: John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Advice with cooling system problem
In-Reply-To: <42AAF0BA.2050204@comcast.net>
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My hands-on experience is limited to a single vehicle, but I've
spent/wasted a lot of time thinking about the 2.1 cooling system
plumbing. This is just dumdum me thinking out loud, but:
If the radiator was obstructed and resistant to flow, would not the
system send more water through the bypass hose between the right side
water manifold and T-stat housing instead? Then you'd have more than
the usual volume of uncooled water running into the T-stat housing,
and subsequently into the left side pipe, making it hotter. And with
the radiator restricted, it seems plausible that what water IS going
through the radiator is doing it slower, thus perversely getting
cooled more than a normal flow would. The thing that keeps the
radiator hot is a constant flow of hothothot water from the engine, so
it stands to reason that reduced flow would result in a cooler
radiator. Truly I am just pulling all this from beneath my hind
quarters, but it seems like a rational train of logic from the comfort
of my La-Z-Boy. Of course a wonky thermostat would cause exactly the
same thing, as it's job is to block flow through the radiator; but if
you're confident the thermostat is good, I'd say radiator it is.
> If I check the hose that is to the right on the thermostat housing (goes
> to the plastic coolant distributor on the passenger side behind the
> firewall), it reads around 185F on both vans. However the difference
> comes with the larger hose that comes out of the left of the thermostat
> housing (short 90 deg hose that goes to metal coolant pipe). On the
> normal van this hose it around 165F. On the hotter running van this
> hose runs about 185F as well. Also measuring temp at the coolant
> expansion tank. The normal van sees around 185-190F. The hotter
> running van sees around 200-205F. If I turn on the front heater fan the
> needle moves down a little (plenty of heat coming out of here).
>
> I measured at the radiator (top corners) and they are running about the
> same temps. If anything the van that runs hotter has a slightly lower
> temperature at the radiator.
>
> I just wondered if there was a full-proof way to know that the radiator
> was the culprit before going to the extra expense/pain of replacing the
> radiator.
>
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