Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:27:22 -0400
Reply-To: Ken Wilford <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Ken Wilford <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET>
Subject: Re: 87 Syncro Westy Puking Coolant
In-Reply-To: <f311dae68c8d.48dceda6@shaw.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
It sounds to me like you could have combustion gases getting into the
coolant. That means a cracked head or a bad head gasket. You can test
for this quickly and easily by purchasing a test kit from NAPA. It is
part number BK 700-1006 and it is about $40. You start the van, remove
the cap on the expansion tank and then draw the air in the tank through
a blue liquid that is inside of this large glass eye dropper looking
thing. If the fluid turns yellow then you have combustion gases in the
coolant and you are looking at pulling the heads to take a look.
Let me know if you need any more information or parts. Welcome to the
Vanagon List!
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com
Greg Baxter wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I'm a first time poster - I've been lurking for the past month or so since we bought Bastian, our new toy. On both of our major trips, I've been plauged with this problem.
>
> After a few hours of driving - we're obviously up to temperature - when compression braking downhill, I end up with all of the coolant in the filler tank, and none in the expansion tank. It seems that the coolant is being pushed out of the expansion tank when it's working hard, but when things start to cool down (?) and the coolant shrinks (?) the coolant is not being drawn from the filler tank, and I end up with a dry expansion tank and a blinking coolant light, which leads to a little bit of swearing and a quick pull-over to the side of the road.
>
> I can siphon the coolant out of the filler tank by removing the hose from the expansion cap and drawing it into a bottle. I can't open the filler tank as the coolant level is higher than the filler cap. The back of the Westy is covered in specks of coolant. Once I've manually equilabrated the coolant level, we're good to go until the next downhill run or cool-down period, and then this starts all over again.
>
> Between trips, over the past month I've done the following:
>
> New expansion tank cap;
> New hose between filler tank and expansion tank;
> New Thermostat;
> New Pipe between water pipe & thermostat housing; (Thanks Frank!)
> New hose between this pipe and the t-stat housing;
> New Gauge temperature sender;
> Bleeding, bleeding, bleeding.
>
> When I replaced the water pipe, I did a poor job of reseating a clamp, so I lost some coolant yesterday. I reseated the clamp properly topped it up and rebled the system - this was all before the expansion tank ran dry yesterday.
>
> What could be causing this phenomenon?
>
> I'm currently parked in Osoyoos BC at a park with wireless, but I can't send outgoing emails. I'm also a digester, so please cc: any responses to this pmail account.
>
> Oh yeah - it's a stock 2.1.
>
> Thanks in advance everyone!
>
>
> Greg
>
> 87 Syncro Westy 'Bastian'
>
>
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