On Tue, 11 May 2004, Doug in Calif wrote:

> Imagine that, VW with their seemingly endless research and design team
> puts together a factory service manual procedure for purging the
> extremely long and complex cooling system of the vanagon.

Remember that the VW procedure assumes that the van is in a shop, and that
the mechanic gets one chance to bleed the system and then will never see
the van again.

As long as the system isn't air-locked to the point where the van
overheats, if you just go for a short drive after bleeding it any
remaining air will naturally collect in the radiator.  When I bleed my
cooling system, I leave the grille off for the first drive, and when I get
back home I crack the bleeder with the engine hot and idling.  After
following the Bentley procedure for the diesel (which is a little
different than for the gas model) I usually get the tiniest bit of
additional air out this way.  Is it enough air to cause a problem?
Probably not, but it makes me feel good to get it all out.  It also means
that if I find air up there later, I know I have a head gasket problem or
a pinhole leak in the radiator.

Both the Bentley procedure and the one you're debating about make logical
sense...the only difference is where the air goes.  Bentley lifts the
front to make the air get up there more easily.  TJ lifts the rear until
the coolant bottle is above the top of the rad.  Note that this means
lifting the van really high...I mean SCARY high, high enough that you're
kinda nervous about getting too close to it.  So that may be why it's not
the Official Procedure.

David Brodbeck, N8SRE
'86 Volvo 240DL wagon
'82 VW Vanagon Westfalia Diesel