The radiator may also be plugged not providing sufficient cooling or if it
overheats under load, there could be a head gasket or cracked head issue.

Dennis

>From: Jonathan Farrugia <jfarrugi@UMICH.EDU>
>Reply-To: Jonathan Farrugia <jfarrugi@UMICH.EDU>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Re: 2 Cups low on coolant made my vanagon overheat?
>Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 05:26:45 -0400
>
>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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>>
>>