Gary,
I had this problem on my 83 watercooled westy.  However, unlike you I
was not enlightened enough to think that it was a problem.  The one
similarity with mine is the high speed fan kicking in.  I guess that
you don't have any white smoke coming out of your tail pipe when you
first start it up.  I had a little bit before the "big incident" which
I'll tell you about soon.  However, I thought it was simply
condensation in the engine and nothing to worry about.

When I was off on an 800 mile run, the coolant was going down faster,
but nothing seemed amiss to me.  Then, I overheated my van due to a
coolant hose bursting and then I had my billowing smoke problem.

Well, what I think happened was that my head was already cracked and
when I overheated it, the crack got bigger.  Just my idea, not really
sure.

Another possibility might be the thin green o-ring on your cylinder
sleeve might have gotten messed up.  This would be less costly than a
cracked head.

However, in my case, I SAW WHITE SMOKE coming out of my tailpipe.  If
you don't have white smoke, coolant is probably not leaking into your
exhaust.

-- Craig

On Sun, 14 Jul 2002, gary hradek wrote:

> My 87 vanagon has been using  coolant for the past two
> years.   On average about a cup every 1000 miles.   It
> will use more when I am driving it in the mountains
> under a heavy load and tends to run hotter with the
> high speed fan kicking on and off .     When it is
> running hotter but never overheating (never has)I can
> smell the slightest whiff of antifreeze coming from
> the front.   I have looked everywhere for some
> evidence of coolant loss but I am unable to find
> any.(front and rear heaters, radiators,engine)   The
> coolant gets replaced from the very back tank and
> there is no evidence that it boils back into the
> recovery tank or ever boils in the tank with the blue
> cap.   I have replaced the thermostat and the blue cap
> and bled the system.   I am concerned that the coolant
> is going out the tail pipe but I see no evidence of
> this?
> What is my future here.   How long does it take to
> before I have this situation clarified and will it
> strand me somewhere?   Any voice of experience is
> appreciated.  gary
>
>
>
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--
Craig Oda   craigoda@communitybuilders.info
VW Info: 1983 VW Westfalia, water-cooled, automatic
http://communitybuilders.dhs.org/craigoda/vw/