You should be getting water out of each of those locations when you open
them up with your current setup. But getting water out of the radiator
bleeder doesn't mean that you have flushed the radiator.

The radiator loop starts at the coolant distributor, goes through one main
cooling hose to the radiator, through the radiator, back through the other
main cooling hose ending at the thermostat housing.  Before the engine
reaches operating temperature, the thermostat is closed and there is no
coolant flow through the radiator loop. In order to flush out the radiator
loop completely, both ends of the loop need to be open, so the thermostat
needs to be open..Once you start adding cool water to the system via the
"T", you are in effect doing the job of the radiator - providing cooling to
the motor. The thermostat will close, coolant flow through the radiator loop
will stop and your radiator loop doesn't get flushed.

If  you open the radiator bleed screw, you have now provided a path for
water to flow partially through the radiator loop. You've opened the
radiator loop in the middle and now the water goes from the coolant
distributor, through one of the main cooling hoses, into the radiator and
out the bleeder valve. All of the flushing water will never flow through the
loop even if the thermostat is open now, because some of it is going out the
bleeder valve.

I would love to see more discussion on the list about this. Maybe I am
completely out in left field, so I welcome any and all responses. I was
disappointed in the lack of response to this thread considering the
importance of maintaining the Vanagon's much maligned cooling system
properly.

Tim Hannink
Goldibox - 1987 Westfalia Camper, Wolfsburg Edition
Winter Park, Florida
http://home.earthlink.net/~tjhannink/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Edward Maglott" <emaglott@BUNCOMBE.MAIN.NC.US>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2001 5:48 PM
Subject: Re: Cooling system tip and involved question

> I put the prestone flush-n-fill Tee in the heater hose near the sliding
> door (this is also near the fuel pump).  I chose that place mainly for
> convenience, and because it seemed to serve the same purpose as putting it
> up front in the same heater hose.  I flushed cold water into there with
the
> engine running and can tell you that I had water gushing out the radiator
> bleeder, and the rear heater bleeder, the thermostat bleeder and the 1
> crankcase drain I could get open, and the fill cap on the expansion
> tank.  I just kept flushing after I drained and disposed of properly the
> bulk of the coolant.  I would run the engine, not run the engine, close
the
> crankcase drain and fill and drain the engine multiple times, etc.
> Edward