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Date:         Tue, 18 Jun 1996 23:42:10 -0500 (CDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         tmarcini@execpc.com (Tim Marciniak)
Subject:      Re: How to flush the system

>I need to drain all coolant from and flush my 86 Westy tomorrow. I remember >disconnecting hoses the last time, but did not get all the old coolant out >of it. What is the best way to accomplish this task. > >Bill

Bill,

I just flushed my cooling system on Sunday. This was the first time for me so I'm going through a big learning curve on vanagon maintenance. I recommend you check out the Bentley manual and the following sites for cooling system info, many of the articles here helped me a great deal:

gopher site: halfdan.med.umn.edu:/Miscellaneous/Vanagon ftp site: lenti.med.umn.edu:/pub/vanagon URL: gopher://halfdan.med.umn.edu:70/11/Miscellaneous/Vanagon

I might add that it took me about 4-5 hours from the time I started in my garage until I test drove it. The first step was getting the van on floor stands so the whole van was about 1 to 1.5 feet off the ground. I then removed the cap from the expansion tank, removed the drain plugs from the cylinder head (6mm hex allen type on a ratchet), be careful with these drain plugs because it looks like they could easily be damaged if strict care is not taken when removing them. In fact one guy who wrote up a procedure in one of the archives recommended skipping this step because of the potential problems with removing them. Taking great care, mine came out without any problems and I would recommend taking them out because I drained an awful lot of coolant from the heads. Next I disconnected both of the large coolant hoses on the right side of the van near the engine block. This is the area were the hard plastic coolant line ends and a regular rubber hose takes over. After I got these two connections apart I drained coolant from this point, reattached the hoses and put new clamps on. Next I went to the front of the van and disconnected both rubber hoses from the radiator and drained both the radiator and more coolant from the hoses. I left these hoses going to the radiator disconnected. Next I decided to put a "prestone" T connector into the heater line that goes to the front heat exchanger. I choose the heater hose that had the heat controller in its line. I turned the heater controls to max and made sure the heat exchanger valve under the rear seat was open. Next I attached a garden hose to the T connection and by trial and error I connected and disconnected the coolant hoses going to the radiator until I was sure water from the garden hose was flushing through the radiator. The way it turned out I left the upper radiator hose connected and left the lower hose disconnected. At this point I removed the stands from the rear of the van so only the front was raised, turned the water on so now water is flowing through the garden hose through the T connection, into the heater hose and through the cooling system, I start the engine and let it run for 2-3 minutes and watch while the remainder of old coolant comes out the radiator were the lower radiator hose was left disconnected, soon clear water starts to flush through and I felt pretty confident at this point that all the old coolant was out and the system was flushed thoroughly. I turn off the garden hose, disconnect it and put the cap on the tee. At this point I again disconnected the upper radiator hose and drained out as much water as possible. I connected the hoses back to the radiator. From this point on I really wasn't sure as to how much water was left in the system but I proceeded to refill the system with coolant according to the directions in the Bentley manual. I ended adding a little over two gallons of antifreeze (Autobahn brand) so I'm probably about 50:50 or 60:40 antifreeze to water which is about right. I'll test the solution in a couple of days.

I'd sure like to hear how others flush this system, I can't believe a VW dealer would go through and spend the time flushing the system like I did. I'm planning on doing this every year so maybe next year I'll get it done in two hours. Good luck to you and I'd sure like to hear if anyone has an easier way of doing this.

Tim Marciniak tmarcini@execpc.com 90 Westy


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