Date:         Mon, 29 Jul 2013 06:20:13 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Checking pressure cap function???
In-Reply-To:  <61355810-99F2-41E2-B559-37C05F5FE030@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252

  A quick way to check the integrity of the head and gasket on the 1.8
inline...maybe even give you an idea if the pressure bottle and cap is
working is this.

   Remove the hose between the pressure bottle and the overflow tank and
also pull the sparkplugs....easy as pie on the inline motor.  Put some
compressed air to the end of that hose, back through the pressure reservoir
cap and into the pressure bottle.  I set my outflow compressed air at
25psi....Then take a listening device...stethoscope or a tube of some sort
that you can listen with near the open sparkplug holes, and listen (and/or
look) for escaping coolant going into the cylinders...Be careful to not
drop dirt or anything else inside there.  Mine, when I first brought it
home, I  blew my own headgasket with a bone-headed coolant change,  being
totally unfamiliar with Vanagons and their cooling system....
I could easily hear the leaking headgasket, with 'hissing' coming from a
slight leak between the two front cylinders' s plug holes.  Mine also blew
a hose with that leaking headgasket and the temperature gauge wasn't
reading hot at the time...The hose coming off the top front of the head..

   Couple of more things:  If you recently changed the motor, go back and
review how you have run the coolant connections and hoses...The system is
not at all straight forward, in fact it seems downright weird the way my
hoses are hooked up.   I got my van already done, so I never had to
actually figure out the system,  but when I swapped over to my 2.0l ABA
Jetta block (keeping my 1.8l head) I had to adapt my hoses for the oil
cooler/filter heat exchanger.  I sort of tried to understand how it all was
supposed to flow but I gave up after a short while because I didn't really
"need to know".   I just  re-cobbed it up, following what was already
there,  for the most part..A couple of the hoses, I have no idea why they
go where they go, but the system has caused me no problems for about 3yrs
now and countless miles....It was like a jig saw puzzle trying to find
pieces of hose from my box of hoses from both my motors...hose-sections
that would take the coolant into and our of that oil filter heat exchanger
without altering the flow of the cooling system hook-up.
   Make sure you've bled the system with the heaters open.  Make sure you
didn't connect the rear heater hose end to end to eliminate the rear
heater.
  I made a gravity device to top up the coolant in my '84s' radiator (Bus
Depot replacement, happy with that one) right at the bronze bleed screw at
the top.   A piece of steel brake line fits down into the threaded hole
where the air bleed is at the top of the rad.   With some creative bending
and a funnel I add coolant up there, watching the air bubble out around the
steel brake line till it's all coolant.  I do that a couple of days after
messing with my cooling system.  I drove Portland to Yuma and back,  with
my leaking headgasket...topping up the rad like that every two tanks of
fuel...

  I re-surfaced my own head using sandpaper and a flat surface...been
perfectly good now for 65k miles.  Took me about an hour to flatten the
head surface and maybe 5 more hrs to remove and replace.  Put in an
aftermarket camshaft while you have the head off...Check the VW Vortex
pages for good info on inline VW gas motors..
  good luck, Don Hanson


On Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 3:06 AM, Frank Condelli <RAlanen@aol.com> wrote:

>         Doug, I hate to tell you this but you may have a combustion leak
> into the system.  I have a 2.1 water boxer here that has been doing the
> very same thing and have determined that the left head has a minute crack
> in it, so that when driving, over pressures the system and blows stuff up.
>  At idle all is fine !  So….. I know that engine is new to you but not NEW,
> new !  The head could have a slight crack that opens up when driving and
> that's what is over pressuring the system.  The way I found out what was
> happening here is by using a test of the coolant for exhaust gases.  John
> had the kit and we tested the coolant last week and boom there was exhaust
> gas in the coolant.  Only way that got in there was a crack in the head.
>  AND, on the water boxer with two heads you can check the temp of the
> heads.  The left head was reading over 100 C while the right head was at 40
> C !
>
>
> On 2013-07-29, at 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor <
> LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> wrote:
>
> > Re: Checking pressure cap function???
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Frank Condelli
> Almonte, Ontario, Canada
> '87 VW Westy, '00 Kawasaki 250 Sherpa, "98 Ducati 750 Monster & Lionel
> Trains (Collection for sale)
> Frank Condelli & Associates - Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the
> Ottawa Valley
> BusFusion a VW Camper camping event, Almonte, ON, June 06 ~ 09, 2013
>