Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 07:35:36 -0700
Reply-To: Mark McCulley <raven@HALCYON.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Mark McCulley <raven@HALCYON.COM>
Subject: Re: Mystery Bentley coolant drain instructions
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Don't forget to enable coolant flow through both the front and rear heat
exchangers by turning the front heater control to the max position and
opening the valve in the rear heater.
At 03:25 AM 5/28/98 EDT, Michael Modl wrote:
>In a message dated 98-05-27 21:37:46 EDT, printstud@CSI.COM writes:
>
><< After researching many long hours on the vanagon archives about how
> to flush the cooling system, I came across several helpful members
> descriptions on how to do it.
>
> But there were still several questions so I decided to break down & buy
> the Bentley Manual. (BTW, both the old folks home and the bus depot were
> out of stock and I needed it right away so I called JC Whitney who had
> it in stock and could ship it out that day for $70!)
>
> So far I'm not very happy with Bentleys description of how to flush (or
> drain, which is all that is mentioned) the coolant out of the Vanagon.
> Perhaps the author presumed that I already knew how to do it?? In which
> case why would you need the manual??) It is very confusing and has left
> out a lot of steps! And it doesn't make sense! >>
>
> Here is the simple version to flushing the coolant. Remove the right sheild
>on the right cylinder head to access the drain plug. Drain the coolant. It's
>not needed to do the same on the left cylinder head drain because only about
>half a quart of coolant will come out on the left side when the cooling system
>is drained. Remove the spare tire. Remove the lower radiator hose and drain
>the rest of the coolant. Reinstall the hose. Put right cylinder head sheild
>and drain plug back on. Add VW phosphate free coolant already premixed with
>50% water and 50% coolant to the coolant reseviour in the left side of the
>engine compartment. Jack the front end of the car up about 12 inches. Remove
>the headlight grill. Start car. Open up the bleeder screw on top of the
>radiator, don't remove the bleeder screw. It's on the top right while looking
>at the radiator. Make sure the car was in neutrul and the E-brake is on. Open
>up the bleeder screw on the thermostat housing on the front left part of the
>engine compartment. Coolant doesn't come out of this bleeder screw. It
>internally bleeds. Hold engine RPM at around 3500 to 4000 RPM. Add coolant ALL
>the way full while holding high RPM. You'll notice the higher the RPM, the
>more coolant you can add. Put the coolant resevior cap on. Now let go of the
>throttle, let the car idle. Doen't worry about that hose that goes on the cap
>just yet. Go up front to the bleeder screw and see if any air is coming out.
>When a small steady stream of coolant comes out with no air bubbles, close the
>bleeder screw. Go back to the coolant resevior, raise RPM way up again to
>around 4000 RPM. Unscrew cap. Add as much coolant as full as you can, raise
>RPM even higher to get as much as you can in. Put resevior cap back on and
>now let go of the throttle, let the car idle. Go back up front to the bleeder
>screw, open up a little bit to get any remaining air out. Close when
>comfirmed. Put that hose on the coolant resevior. Let the car idle till hot
>and the fan has cycled once. One more quick check of the front bleeder screw.
>Close the rear bleeder screw. Turn the car off to reset the flashing coolant
>light. Put the other things back together. You'll have used allmost two
>gallons of PREMIXED coolant. Do with a cold engine. The adding coolant and
>going back and forth, should take about 5 minutes, before waiting to reach
>operating temp. Do not remove the coolant resevoir cap with a hot engine.
>Fill the coolant catch behing the lisence plate. The whole job is a little
>messy. GOOD LUCK. Let me know how it works out.
> Michael M. 87 syncro.
>
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