Hey thanks much to the generous individuals that
offered help on the cooling system confusion. Feel
like I've been baptized now, both literally and
figuratively. Man, it's amazing that thing runs at
all, the po had been running it with no flow to
the radiator at all, the system was totally air
locked. At first I tried the "prestone flush valve
in the heater hose" thing and for me anyway it was
mostly a waste of time. In the end, after futzing
with the flush valve and trying to get the water
to run clean, all I did was take off both rad
hoses from the thermostat housing, and at the same
time disconnect both rad hoses from the plastic
pipes near the front of the van. I alternately
stuck a garden hose way up into each of the 8
holes, flushing water while plugging whatever I
could reach with my hand. Besides getting royally
soaked the result was crystal clear water. Then I
just plugged everything back together, and started
pouring in the orange. It would seem that after
disconnecting the afore mentioned four hoses and
letting water drain as it may, it takes nearly the
perfect amount of orange (two gallons) to make for
the desired 50/50 mix. So, after dumping about a
gallon and a half into the expansion tank, I
raised the rear and ran it with the rear bleed
valve open, about 5 minutes of this allowed me to
slowly add the other gallon with no boiling or
drama. 5 minutes and no more air bubbles in the
exp tank so I close the valve. Then rolled it off
the ramps and raised the front and took the bolt
OUT, and ran it again. Not allot was going on so I
dribbled about another half a gallon of water out
of the hose directly into the radiator bleed hole
with engine running and stuff started happening.
Nice bubbles of air and clear water bubbling out,
then about the time the water started bubbling
orange there was no more air, just orange. Bolt
back in, temp gauge correct reading, test drive, 4
miles, park on a perfect incline, crack the bolt,
just a bit of air, then just orange. heat in
front, heat in the rear, gauge in the middle,
perfect. A bit unorthodox (did someone say crude?)
but apparently rather effective.

Running pretty nicely now, as an experiment I took
drove it with the PS belt off and there IS a
slight difference in power feel. I really do find
stiff steering annoying though, it always reminds
me of a 3/4 ton 59 ford 4x4 with 40 something inch
tires I had once, with manual steering. After a
while I could bend rebar but it's something I
don't feel inclined to revisit. When I was a kid
they promised me a new world in the year 2000,
least I can have is power steering.

jambo,
mark...