John,

Imagine the letter "L" lying on its back.  Sorta like this: ____I.  The
(now) vertical portion of this symbolizes the radiator.  The (now)
horizontal portion represents the rest of the cooling system.

If you lift the back end of the van, you'll allow air to purge through all
of the system EXCEPT the upper reaches of the radiator.  I would guess that
you can evacuate at least some of the air from the radiator using your
method, and your van will run OK till it is in a high stress situation, at
which point you'll need the full cooling capacity of the radiator.

If you lift the front of the vehicle, the air will bubble along the lines
till it reaches the radiator and then rise to the top, where the bleed screw
is located.

It kinda stands to reason that the folks who designed the vehicles would not
give such difficult instructions to bleed the system unless there's some
logic to the system, no?

Karl Wolz

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Rodgers" <jhrodgers@CHARTER.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, January 06, 2001 9:05 PM
Subject: Re: Coolant Raise the front end?

> Dan, my mechanic raises the rear of the van. He runs it with the filler
cap off
> the expansion tank so it can vent all air to atmosphere. Though the
bBentley
> says do it with the front elevated, it seems a little easier with the
backend
> up. You can purge the air yourself easily by parking on a steep grade and
with
> the pressure cap off the expansion tank, running the engine in accordance
with
> the Bentley book.
>
> John Rodgers
> 88 GL Driver
>
> Daniel Danrich wrote:
>
> > I just talked to a VW mechanic that says to raise the Rear end of the
Van to
> > get the air out of the cooling system and the info in the archives says
to
> > raise the front end , what's right?
> > Is it because he's pressurizing the system?
> > Dan