how long have those heads been on the engine ?
you should never need to bleed the cooling system more than once if things are right.
You do it once after cooling system work of course, ...............but it won't 'unbleed' unless something is leaking.........
either air in one of the dozens and dozens of connections and hoses and pipes............
or ..............exhaust gases getting into the cooling system at the heads and joke "head gaskets."

did you pressure test it to look for ordinary coolant leaks ?
I don't trust the pressure caps much btw .
I always care a spare or two. Others have reported those not working like they should all the time.
I might add that bleeding is not some hyper-critically needed process.
I have swapped whole engines many times............and not bothered to bleed the cooling system for quite a while, and things were just fine anyway. 
For sure, you do need to have no air in there for ultimate cooling system performance..........
But they can also work just fine without meticulous attention to bleeding.
And if you fine air in your cooling system after you have bled it, and again after bleeding it thoroughly..........
think about the possibility of exhaust gasses getting into the coolant at the heads.
I say the heads should be pulled every 80,000 miles for a nice valve job and new head gaskets, as regular maintenence .
They really do have joke head sealing compared to all 'normal' engines with 'real' head gaskets. 

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Matthew Snook 
  To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM ; wetwesties@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 1:16 PM
  Subject: [WetWesties] sudden glitch

  My '84 1.9 Westy barfed last night, and I don't know why. It's been running
  great, with a known oil leak (and a scheduled fix) and an intermittently
  leaking O-ring in the rear heater. But I check all the fluids before I
  start it each time anyway, so I know it's all within the max/min lines.
  Then last night I stopped after 100 miles or so of hills etc., put on the
  parking brake and let the engine run as I pulled out a map to check the
  distance to my campsite. While looking at the map I heard a gurgle in the
  line, which surprised me. I looked up and the temp gauge had peaked and the
  light was blinking! The fan had not come on! So I immediately killed the
  ignition and let it sit while I finished with the map. Got out, checked the
  overflow tank etc. - all full but there was coolant all over the road.
  Started it up again went a ways, no problem. Eventually found my camp and
  hit the hay. Next morning, all fluids fine, all systems go. I pulled onto
  a berm and put the nose in the air, burped the radiator and let it cycle
  through the fan a couple of times. I've driven some this morning. No
  overheating, no flashy light, no more barfing.

  What happened? Why just the once? There _was_ air in the system when I
  burped the radiator, is that all? It's probably been 3000 miles since I
  last burped it, maybe I need to do it more often. ?

  Matt

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