Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 17:24:31 -0400
Reply-To: John Lauterbach <lauterba@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Lauterbach <lauterba@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Subject: Re: cooling fluid capacity of 84 vanagon w/ 1.9?
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Roger, why do you want to use distilled water when the system has so many
surfaces that will contaminate the distilled water? There are no specs per
se on distilled water. There are specifications for various grades of water
used in industrial processes, laboratories, etc. I use the blue VW coolant
diluted with tap water.
John
'84
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Sisler" <rogersisler2000@YAHOO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 4:52 PM
Subject: Re: cooling fluid capacity of 84 vanagon w/ 1.9?
> Hello, I think these people are correct. The vanagon holds bout 18 qts of
> coolant. To get a 50/50 mix, you need 2.5 gallons of antifreeze.My
> vanagon
> uses Sierra brand(pep boys $6.99/gallon). The issue here is that the
> coolant needs to be phosphate free, or head gasket leaks will occur.If you
> currently have green antifreeze, you probably have Prestone(not good).You
> might want to type "antifreeaze" or "coolant" into the archives to get an
> education.$160 is alot of money, and you may want to be sure that you wont
> loose this investment in the near future. Check all your hoses ,the
> waterpump($600.00 to replace),clean radiater,so forth ,and so on, first. I
> have never kept my antifreeze for more than 6 months for various reasons(
> am I the only one?)Also to get a good flush is difficult and the cooling
> system on the 1.9 is a rat maze.I have never completely drained my system
> ,
> even when I wanted to. There always seems to be a few qts hiding
> somewhere.There is no petcock to openup to drain. A hose at the radiater
> needs to be disconnected.Also a couple of hoses in the engine
> compartment.I
> put one of those prestone quick flush attachments on my heater hose (by
> the
> spare tire), and even when I run the engine for 15 minutes, I still have
> green inside.Guess you got to take the thermistat out too.Just cant see
> all
> this being done correctly for $160.Bottom line is you can do this
> yourself
> for about $25, and get a pretty good job. No one will probably get all the
> old out anyway. Install a cleaner for a few days , and then a couple of
> drains and refills with water, and then a final fill w/ Correct antifreeze
> will do the job.In the final filling, ya gotta be sure that you remove 2.5
> gallons of water so you can fit in the antifreeze. This takes the removal
> of a few hoses, and the crossing of fingers.2.5 gallons is alot.Also use
> only distilled water, if possable-make sure the shop knows this(whats
> that-
> 10 gallons of distilled?. They probably wont add this anyway, even for
> $160. Then ,you have to bleed the system(seperate archives
> search "bleeding".Like I say, check all the components and upgrades you
> may
> want to make before this investment.It is a way to really learn the
> vanagon
> for better or worse.
>
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