Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 07:03:05 -0700
Reply-To: Anthony Egeln <regnsuzanne@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Anthony Egeln <regnsuzanne@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Radiator removal
In-Reply-To: <00ad01c6cd01$eb182f90$650fa8c0@DELL>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Ken, I'm glad you mentioned that the needle barely gets to the 1/2 way mark. My temp needle barely gets out of the white, except for one or two occasions in the last three years where it got to half. I'd always assumed that the gauge was reading incorrectly, even after the sensor had been replaced. Maybe it is reading correctly and I have a very cool running van. The only time it budges much past the white is when I'm stuck in traffic on a hot day. Strangely enough I can be in traffic on a hot day and the needle stays on the edge of the white. Again must be a lower temp thermostat and very efficient coolng system.
Is there an easy way to tell if I have an aluminum radiator by looking at it? Not that I'm looking for trouble, but in the Florida heat and humidity I don't want to take any chances on overheating and want to know the system well.
Anthony
'89 Syncro GL (Hidalgo)
Kenneth Wilford <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET> wrote: I just replaced one on an 86 Westy. The old one was a replacement copper
core one (so I am pretty sure it was not original). Before the swap the van
would get hotter, and hotter, and hotter until it would boil (very slowly).
New Aluminum one and it will not even go all the way up to 1/2 on the gauge.
Runs super cool. Put in a new fan switch (grey one) and when it gets up to
half the fan comes on and takes it back down to below half. I believe it
must have an 80 C degree thermostat since that is where it is running now.
The crazy thing is that the the old copper core radiator (which said made in
Germany on the bottom) looked in good condition. It was not noticeably much
heavier than the copper (didn't weigh them) and I didn't see the normal mud
looking substance inside. There was a thin film of slime inside the
radiator that I could feel with my fingers.
The van was running fine temperature-wise until the radiator fan debacle
(see last month's post about this) and the van threw the water pump belt
while going down the highway. Not sure how this effected the radiator but
perhaps it let the coolant get so hot that it liquified sludge in the
coolant system and then pumped this up to the radiator. I have no idea.
PS Yhe van even seems to have more power now. I have now idea how this
could be. Maybe I am just insane!
Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
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-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Bob Mac
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 7:56 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Radiator removal
I just bought a new radiator for my 84 westy. Someone posted how to tell
how old the radiator is in my van so i went out and looked. Sure enough it
was the original. Had a date of 1983 on it. I took the old one out and
couldn't believe the difference in weight between them. Sooo i weighed them.
The old 22 lbs, the new 11 lbs. I found it very hard to believe that their
was 11 lbs of dirt in the old one. The old one is made of copper and the new
is of aluminum. Curiosity got the best of me so i had to operate on the old
one. I took both tanks off the old one and looked for all this dirt. Their
was none. Outside of some white corrosion in the bottom half their was no
dirt. I held a light on one side of the fins and looked thru each fin and
saw that light could be seen thru every fin. Which means nothing was
blocked. Outside of a little oily film, the rad. looked fine. My point
being, other than having the satisfaction of knowing i have a new rad. in my
van i changed it for no other reason. I guess that's the difference between
copper and alum. Just thought i'd throw that out there.
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