I put a flushing tee in the heater hose under the van. Hook up your garden hose and flush away! Note: The plastic tees you buy at your flaps will break in a few years, so either plan on changing it once in a while, or make yourself one out of copper pipe.

Also, you can never get all of the water out, so first add undiluted coolant in the proper amount to get 50%, and then fill with water. Here in the northwest we have naturally soft water directly from mountain snow melt, so I don't bother with distilled.

Stuart '85 Westy

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Rocket J Squirrel Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 7:53 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Temp Gauge -- why did this happen?

So we dropped the leaky radiator on my 1.9 and set the hoses to drooling into a bucket. Only a few quarts (litres) came out. The cap was off the expansion tank.

My son suggested starting the engine for a bit to pump out some more coolant. I reckoned it couldn't hurt (watch: I bet I'm wrong) so I started the engine.

Within a few moments the temp gauge started climbing. Obviously the engine, which had been on for fewer than 15 seconds, was overheating.

So what was the gauge reading?

IN OTHER NEWS, I plan to run a couple loads of distilled water to flush out more gunk before we connect the rad and put in coolant.

But if only a gallon or so comes out through passive droolage then that ain't gonna work. So I tried a trick that Zoltan told me about: stuck my air compressor nozzle into the top of the expansion tank, sealed the gap with a shop rag, and blew some air in.

A lot more coolant came out, but not the nearly five gallons my owner's manual says is in the system.

Other than disconnecting hoses from the friggin' water pump which I will /not/ do willingly (the 1.9 doesn't make it easy to get to them), is there something else I can do to get a more complete flush?

The van is parked with the nose slightly elevated. It could be pushed off the ramps to lower the nose if that would help.

Suggestions from anyone other than David Bereil are welcome. He told me to test the new radiator by jamming a screwdriver through the coils. I'm not sure I can trust him any more.

-- Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott Bend, Ore. 1984 Westfalia. A poor but proud people. 1971 "Ladybug"-brand utility trailer ca. 1972 from a defunct company in San Clemente, Calif., now repurposed as The Westrailia.