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Date:         Tue, 27 Jun 2006 04:33:09 -0700
Reply-To:     Joseph Fortino <fortino1@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joseph Fortino <fortino1@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Re: Denver to San Diego and back - Lost my cool in the desert (a
              trip              report)
Comments: To: David McCallum <boris89.david@GMAIL.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

It's a hard life without AC these days, 120 in the van sometimes for me, but what the heck its part of the fun, i tell my wife you feel the trip.. ;) OPEN the windows.. hehe

Joe L.V, NV

-----Original Message----- >From: David McCallum <boris89.david@GMAIL.COM> >Sent: Jun 26, 2006 3:32 PM >To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM >Subject: Denver to San Diego and back - Lost my cool in the desert (a trip report) > >Well, once again the bus performed admirably, given the 2000+ miles of >either climbing fairly steep grades or driving through desert conditions. I >only had one incident, but it caused me quite a bit of concern and even came >back to scare me again. > >After about 600 miles of fun road trip, about 10 miles north of St. George, >UT, as I'm glancing at the instrument panel I see the coolant and alternator >lights go on. The VW gods were smiling on me, as I was just coming up on an >exit with services. I quickly shifted into neutral, shut off the engine, and >coasted around the exit ramp cloverleaf, over the bridge and had enough >momentum to glide into the gas station and under the gas pump shelter. After >quickly emptying the back of the bus, I removed the cover and immediately >confirmed my snap diagnosis...a broken alt/water pump belt. I could hear the >coolant boiling in the engine, the expansion tank was half empty, and the >overflow tank was completely full and leaking precious coolant. I carefully >removed the overflow tank hose and slowly opened the expansion tank pressure >cap, hoping to depressurize the system to avoid damage and more boiling. > >I replaced the belt with the obligatory spare from under the back bench, >withstanding a cardiac moment when I saw coolant pooling under the right >side of the engine...turned out that the overflow tank hose had slipped from >where I wedged it and was draining out! Filled the expansion tank from the >overflow tank using a Nalgene to transfer, put everything back together, >started the bus (so far so good), opened the radiator bleeder (wife revving >the wasserboxer to 2k RPM) to make sure there wasn't an air/steam bubble up >there, let it idle for about 10 minutes. No leaks from the heads and hoses, >no bubbles apparent in the cooling system, we headed back out on the road. > >Everything remained stable for the rest of the trip, except for the >squealing replacement belt. Turns out that I didn't tighten it well enough >for the 1/3 wrap around the crank pulley to turn it all under full >electrical load. After retensioning with the help of a Really Big >Screwdriver, no problems at all. Coolant level is stable and I'm hoping that >I got very lucky in not breaching the head gaskets internally or externally. >I'll pressure test the cooling system at earliest opportunity. Any other >testing suggestions, other than empirical observation, to confirm that I >didn't harm the engine? > >Other than that, a great trip, although my wife declared that we will never >again cross the Mojave without a functioning A/C. I guess I have a year to >get that taken care of. Thanks for reading! > >-- >Cheers! > >David McCallum >'89 Westy - "Boris"


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