Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:21:07 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Botched Coolant Flush Implications?
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First ........
I sure hope they had the heater valve open during the
filling/bleeding/getting her running with new coolant process !
I suspect that some people or shops may not pay attention to that.
To me ..checking defroster performance is a regular and standard practice
for any time the cooling system has been opened up. I suspect your shop
didn't do that.
on your a-frz ..
does VW even sell conventional green a-frz ?
What they have sold is 'Blue' ..........sold and specified that for years
....easily identified by being blue rather than green like normal
conventional a-frz. It was about $ 20 per gallon.
VW new sells, as far as I know ....a new type of red/orange that 'mixes
with everything' ..
can add it to blue, to green etc.
That red added to green would make a brown a-frz mixture I believe..
it's not likely they did that though I would guess.
For one thing ..
see how much they charged you on the bill for the a-frz.
probably no harm done to your engine, I'm hoping.
check the bleed valve on top of your t-stat housing ..
I like them gently just closed, clockwise.
having it open won't hurt anything I don't think..
for sure ..
when your van has just been worked on , particularly anything to do with
coolant ..
it's not like 'ok, that's all new, don't need to even think about that for a
while' ..
it's 'ok...that was just messed with a lot, and I need to watch it carefully
for a while.'
and to me, it definitely takes some driving and warm-up / cool down cycles
for all air to get out and all coolant to get it.
re the anti-frz .
I think the main choice is 'which type'.
If you are going to use Blue as originally specified..
that's fine. It's expensive . I don't like using a juice that you can't
get at any store that sells automotive products.
There's conventional green.
There's Dexcool...........orange. I like that for my keeper vehicles.
There's generic 'mixes with anything' anti-frz you can get a lot of places.
and there's vw's new reddish stuff,
that my VW parts guy says 'mixes with anything.'
that's part # G012A8G1G
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Wes Neuenschwander" <wes.neuenschwander@COMCAST.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 10:57 AM
Subject: Botched Coolant Flush Implications?
>I recently had the coolant system flushed and coolant replaced in my '91
> Westy at a local independent VW service place. I have about 15,000 miles
> on
> my rebuilt (GoWesty 2.3 liter) engine. When I got the vehicle back, the
> coolant in the reservoir (non-pressurized tank) was at the 'full' line.
> After driving the vehicle about 100 miles, I noticed the heater didn't
> seem
> to be heating fully. After I opened the heater valve 100% for a few
> miles,
> the heater function seemed to be restored, providing well modulated
> heating
> over the full range of the heater valve settings. Engine temperature - or
> rather coolant temperature - was normal the entire trip (consistently
> mid-point on the coolant temp gauge, just as before the coolant flush).
>
> However when I got home from the trip (about 500 miles, including some NW
> Washington mountain passes, I noticed that the reservoir was empty (didn't
> check the pressurized tank, alas). I refilled the reservoir and after
> running the engine a few times during short day trips around town, both
> the
> reservoir and pressurized tank levels are normal (pressurized tank is full
> and the reservoir is at the mid-full mark).
>
> There is no evidence of leaking coolant - anywhere. My guess is that the
> air was not fully purged from the coolant system following the
> flush/refill
> operation (perhaps, at least in part, due to air trapped in the heater
> lines
> and/or heater core).
>
> Two questions:
>
> 1) What do I need to do (if anything) to ensure the system is fully
> purged now?
> 2) What possible adverse effects might there have been from having an
> incompletely purged coolant system on a drive like this (including some
> full-throttle periods over the mountain passes)? In particular, of
> course,
> is it likely that I might have damaged or otherwise compromised those
> infamous waterboxer cylinder heads??
>
> Also, a corollary question: I clearly specified that the replacement
> antifreeze must be Volkswagen brand only (in the past, I've had shops use
> 'house brand' coolants - i.e. whatever the local tech/guru thought was
> best). How can I verify that the antifreeze used was genuine VW and not
> some off-brand?
>
> -Wes
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