If I had that kind of mud and debris in my cooling system, and knew I
would have the hot tempertures and a fair amount of mountain climbing, I
think I would change the water pump. The impellers can't be in the best
of shape.

Good Luck\

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

bret wrote:
>
> I took my two oldest children (6 and 9 yr) on a overnight trip yesterday
> from St. George, Utah to the Kaibab Plateau (North Rim of the Grand
> Canyon).  This was to serve as a shakedown trip, of sorts, for my recently
> acquired 1982 diesel Westfalia.  I was curious to see how it would deal
> with the full-on heat of the summer here in this climate.  When we left
> St. George (elevation 2700 feet) it was over 100 deg F.  As we began to
> climb the Hurricane Fault, about a 1000 foot elevation transition, it
> became apparent that I would need to watch the heat gauge.  The LED began
> flashing.  I was able to (mostly) keep the flashing off by turning the
> cabin heat on full bore.  In this heat it really didn't seem to make much
> of a difference, comfort wise, anyway.  We continued to have trouble the
> entire climb.
>
> With many stops we finally made it to Jacob's Lake on the
> Kaibab at an elevation of about 8000 feet.  The air was sweetly cool at
> this elevation.  Slow deliberate travel in the hot house diesel Westfalia
> made the arrival in the cool pine forest more of a treat than past trips I
> have made there in a shiny new air conditioned Honda at 80 mph.  It felt
> like we had earned the destination!  We stayed at a US Forest Service
> campground.  It cooled to the 50s (deg F) that evening and was perfect
> sleeping temperature.  The stars were bright and the evening meal
> delicious.
>
> We drove straight back home the next morning.  Naturally I was interested
> in solving the cooling issue.  This afternoon I looked around on the web
> and decided I should make sure my cooling system was purged of air.  I
> warmed up the van and pulled off the grill.  I thought while I was at it,
> I would rinse off the radiator.  I took a nozzle to the radiator and found
> that not only bugs were rinsing out, but lots and lots of mud, sand and
> twigs.  I rinsed for at least 1/2 hour before the water ran clear.  I
> should mention here that I had found this kind of debris packed underneath
> the chassis earlier.  It never occurred to me that it would also be in the
> radiator.  My current theory is that the van was in a flash flood when it
> belonged to a previous owner who lived in Springdale, Utah (next to Zion
> National Park).
>
> I was able to purge a small amount of air from the system.  With that and
> the removal of the mud, I am hoping the cooling system will perform better
> the next trip.
>
> -bret