a couple of things.

1.  your van already has a radiator fan.  you should test it to make sure
it operates correctly.

2.  i'm not super familiar with the diesel wiring and coolant sensors so
take this with a grain of salt until someone else chimes in or you look it
up in the wiring diagram.  anyhow i assume that you are equating
overheating with the coolant temperature light flashing.  real overheating
generally means that the temperature gets so high that coolant starts to
boil (there is a relationship to pressure there).  the diesels use a
different coolant tank than the wasserboxer engines.  in the early style
wasser boxer engine there is a sensor in the tank.  this is not a
temperature sensor but a level sensor.  perhaps your tank is designed the
same way.  in wasserboxer tank system if the coolant drops below the level
the sensor can measure it makes the dash light flash.

the light is telling you in that case that the coolant level is low not
that the van is overheating.  in addition to that the light also flashes
if the temperature level is going too high.

3.  you need to find out where that missing coolant went.  that is the
important part.

jonathan

On Mon, 2 Apr 2007, THOMAS IN GEORGIA wrote:

> Hi,
>  I was driving through the Georgia mountains and my 1981 VW Vanagon
high-top diesel was over heating, I had to drive slow and turn on the
heater to cool it down. When I got to my camping spot, I saw that my
coolant was low and added water, just 2 cups to fill it. When I drove it
back, it did not overheat. Can 2 cups low of coolant cause it to
overheat? Should I add a fan to the radiator?
>
>  Thomas
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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