Cooling System

The van's radiator is only a few years old, so I didn't replace it.   I was however, really tired of all the miscellaneous little special-purpose pieces of  hose that cost $40 each and are never in stock.  I decided on 1 1/2 BellowsFlex hard wall marine exhaust hose for the round trip between the engine and radiator.  Also bought all new 5/8" heater hose.   Because the EG-33 engine has separate heater connections and a built-in bypass line, it is super easy to plumb. 

Some of the guys doing this have fabricated metal tubing to get from the top/rear of the engine around the back to go forward to the radiator.  I'm still thinking this is a good idea and may do so later.  Things get pretty tight at the coolant outlet.  There is a tight bend and the power steering pump is right there.  I used an iron elbow  and a rubber elbow to fabricate the out, up and over bends required.

The BellowsFlex then goes across the rear of the van, joins the return hose and heads forward to the radiator.  I bought pre-made elbows to cut and adapt, and a very nice barb fitting I got from Premier Rubber in Portland.  It fits the BellowsFlex just right and has room for two clamps, though only one is needed.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slow Fill Method:  I read this suggestion on the Vanagon mail list.  Makes a lot of sense to me.  Using a cheap drill-powered pump and a bucket of coolant, I got about four gallons into the system.  Enough to make me feel comfortable starting the motor to bleed it.  Starting the motor ? Yikes! I've never bled a Vanagon cooling system before and I don't know if this motor is even going to run! 

Ya, you want to clean the kitty litter pail really well before starting.

 

 

 

 

Burping and Bleeding (Sounds like a red neck night on the town):  The "burp tank" gets coolant in from the heater outlet port then sends it forward to the heater cores.  At first I unthinkingly hooked the output to the top, only to realize that that left no room for air to accumulate, and I'd be sucking it back into the system.  Fixed that and this seems to work okay. 

I tried to rig a one-man bleeding system but the tubing wasn't made for the the hot coolant, so that was abandoned very quickly.  

What does make  it easy is installing the petcock from Kennedy Engineering on the radiator.  I ran a tube from it into a bucket of water so air wouldn't get sucked back in. 

The burp tank is held by SmallCar's bracket.  The overflow tank sits on a piece of heavy foam rubber.  It has a lip on its lower front.  I screwed through this to secure it to the engine bay wall.

For the heater hoses, I found 5/8" tees at my FLAPS.  they were intended for repair purposes.  I think the brand is "Help". 

 

Next:  Fire in the Hole !