Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2013 18:08:27 -0500
Reply-To: Steve Cotsford <cotsford@AOL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Steve Cotsford <cotsford@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: More questions pertaining to my 88 model Bluestar project
In-Reply-To: <CAB2RwfjeLu2nbCOvjaVP=9PeWHchBHb4y+N3zsLkBkssq9rFsA@mail.gmail.com>
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Well today I bought antifreeze and started putting it in. I was able to put in 2 quarts and about 2 quarts or water. I removed the screw from the top of the radiator and ran the engine to circulate the coolant. I was somewhat surprised that I could not put any more in and I was expecting something from the top of the radiator . The engine was running nicely. Then all of a sudden I heard a pop and antifreeze hit the ground up the front with a little water vapour so I turned every thing off. It seemed pretty clear that coolant was circulating as I could feel all the hoses had warmed up and the engine seemed pretty smooth.
I looked under the front and saw coolant so I lowered the spare tire tray and got the tire out. It soon became apparent. Back in May when I installed the engine I was under the van and checked out a lot of things. In my six months of clinics and convalescing however I had not thought too much about it. I had not dropped the spare tire tray before. It turns out that both the hoses that take coolant to the radiator and back to the engine were totally missing and plastic caps had been shoved onto the pipe ends. The pop that I had heard was not the rad that had burst, but one of the caps coming off the coolant pipe. Call me naive if you want but it had not occurred to me that the hoses would be totally missing !!.
I had expected eventually a hose in poor condition and my visual tour underneath had seen nothing so I thought it was safe to fill the system with coolant and antifreeze. I was seriously wrong ! Oh well. At least the rad has not burst....yet and its no wonder that nothing had come out of the top of the rad seeing that nothing had gone in the bottom. Time to get some parts on order and fully check the front end of the system and everything in that area. I saw an electrical fan behind the radiator and there is a silver nipple naked on the back of the motor. Time to study more stuff. Steve
On Dec 10, 2013, at 12:14 PM, Neil N wrote:
> Larrys roadhaus link may help (this is for shops but may provide lead?)
>
> http://www.roadhaus.com/shops.php
>
> Can Vanagon samba members be searched by location? If so, maybe leads
> that way too?
>
> Neil.
>
> On 12/9/13, Steve Cotsford <cotsford@aol.com> wrote:
>
>> Does anyone know Vanagon parts sources and gurus, here in the southeast?
>
>
> --
> Neil n
>
> Blog: tubaneil.blogspot.ca
>
> '88 Westy http://tinyurl.com/c8rlw6p
>
> '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco" http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
>
> Vanagon VAG *Gas* inline-VR Engine Swap Group:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/d7gd5ej
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