Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 22:40:27 -0400
Reply-To: David Katsuki <dkatsuki@WORLD.STD.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: David Katsuki <dkatsuki@WORLD.STD.COM>
Subject: Re: Overheating '88 Westy
In-Reply-To: <3601BF0B.DB363C2F@spawar.navy.mil>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Dick,
Sounds like you may have a clogged radiator - I had sort of the same
problem (not as extreme) with my 87 (which has had the head replacement fix
a while ago). Symptom was that the indicated temp would rise quite
quickly when the van stopped for traffic and the fan did come on, but in
spite of that, I frequently felt the need to turn on the heater (a real
drag in the summer time...). Dom't know why your fan isn't coming on, but
if the radiator is fairly clogged or has had lots of stop-leak put in it, I
could imagine that the fan thermo-switch would never see very hot water and
would never come on. If money is tight, you might try flushing the whole
system out first, but I would replace the rad.
Note that I NEVER have any sort of overheating problems with the 90 van -
even stopped for a long time (1/2 hr+) in traffic on a hot day with the AC
on. The temp gauge always stays pretty much in the center, so the
vanagons should behave quite well when the cooling system is clean.
Ron at the Bus Depot has good radiator prices, and I imagine that Kyle and
Jim do as well.
Dave
87 Wolfsburg
90 Westfalia
At 07:01 PM 9/17/98 -0700, Richard M. Myers wrote:
>Hi Folks,
>
>I'm a new vanagon owner, but experienced type 2 Westy owner, and I'd be
>very thankful if anyone can help me with this scary ($$) problem. My
>recently acquired '88 Westy is exibiting the following symptoms:
>
>1. The temp gauge is always at least 3/4 full scale.
>2. It 'boils over' under moderate loads before the gauge registers full
>scale and the radiator usually feels warn to the touch.
>3. The fan comes on only when it's really hot AND at idle or low RPMs.
>It's not running when I pull over after the flashing light comes on.
>4. When bleeding the cooling system, things get flakey once the engine
>gets hot (ie. at a constant 2K RPMs, it sporatically overflows the
>reservoir, then bubbles). I've managed to bleed it as long as I'm
>fairly quick about it.
>5. Doesn't seem to 'boil over' under consistent conditions. Seems
>somewhat unstable.
>
>Other things to consider:
>
>a. It gets runs good, has good power and gets 20MPG+ on the highway.
>b. It has VW-approved blue coolant (installed by VW - a fiasco, but
>that's another story).
>c. It has a new thermostat (see #b).
>d. Heads appear to be bright and shiny compared to the block (??).
>
>I've done a bit of research poking about on the net and have a couple of
>hunches. It seems as though there may be two problems. One is that
>there seems to be some blockage in the system which doesn't allow
>sufficient flow through the radiator (merely warm when temp is high).
>There's also a greasy film which coats my reservoirs; could it be some
>sort of 'Stop Leak' product? The second problem could be that exhaust
>gasses are leaking into the cooling system sporatically when it's hot,
>forcing coolant into the overflow and creating a 'boil over'-like
>condition (indication). I've read that you can sometimes fix this
>problem by re-torquing down the heads. Is this hard to do?
>
>Anyone have any insight and/or suggestions?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Dick Myers
>San Diego, CA
>'78 Westy
>'88 Westy
>
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