Date: Sun, 4 Dec 1994 07:29:04 -0800 (PST)
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: dbax@netcom.com (Donald Baxter)
Subject: Re: Coolant Flush and Fill (Post Mortem)
Post-Post Mortem actually.
The bus is fine with the new coolant, I do not think it overheated, I
think I was tripping the low coolant switch on the overflow tank. The
light was flashing, not steady (responding to Mr. Stones) but I don't
think that LED is wired to ever be steady. The temperature gauge needle
was sometimes registering the engine as cool when the light would flash.
I still don't have an answer about why the bus would not fill with the
front raised. I filled it with the back raised, and bled it in this
position as well. I suppose now that it is full, to be safe, I will
bleed it with the front raised again (my neighbors here in Midtown
Atlanta are getting a real kick out of all this, BTW).
I think the white smoke, which disappears with the engine warm, is
nothing but exhaust system condensation--the Catalyst does produce some
H2O and short runs of the engine are never enough to burn off all the
water that combustion process and catalyst produces. We'll see how well
the Van holds it's new coolant.
Sadly, the oil drain plug is so buggered up, I couldn't get it off
(looking in the tool box for that set of easy-outs). Oil will wait till
next weekend and should not be nearly as interesting as flush and fill
(or do I have to bleed the #%&@* crankcase as well).
BTW, all in line VW engines have timing belts, some are damaged by
breakage and some are not. My understanding of the situation is this:
Diesels--it simply frys the engine, cylinder head, valve and piston
damage (change your timing belt at 60,000 miles, maybe sooner); 8V
Gasoline engines--belt breakage rarely leads to complications, change the
belt to avoid getting stuck in Ada, Oklahoma, with no qualified support;
16V Gasoline engines--breakage can cause damage sometimes, especially if
the belt breaks under an engine load (my '92 Passat Variant broke one at
38,000 miles and did no engine damage--must have broken after the engine
load as it snapped under a Yellow traffic light while I was hurriedly
making a U-Turn). Hopefully I will have my '85 Vanagon reliable and
trustworthy so I can dump the Passat before I have to replace the belt on
MY nickel.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Donald Baxter dbax@netcom.com Atlanta, Georgia USA
________________________________ 404.874.3292
1992 VW Passat Variant
1985 VW Transporter (Vanagon) GL
18# Calico Cat (Betty)
6# Runt Tabby (Agnes)
Beat up old house in the center of nasty Atlanta
1975 Motobecane Gran Jubilee (still ride it, can't seem to part with it)
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