In a message dated 26/09/2008 4:44:49 P.M. Central Standard Time,
LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM writes:

        Greg, either your expansion  tank cap is defective or you have a
compression leak into the coolant  system.  I've seen this twice this year and
both times it was one or  more of the small green O-rings at the top of the
cylinder barrels that had  blown out.  A leak down test may not show this leak as
it is only  occurring under high engine temps and high compression in the
cylinders.   And I bet if you let it sit idling for any length of time it acts  no
rmally.

>>>>>>>>I'm a first time poster - I've been  lurking for the past month or so
since we bought Bastian, our new toy. On both  of our major trips, I've been
plauged with this problem.

After a few  hours of driving - we're obviously up to temperature - when
compression  braking downhill, I end up with all of the coolant in the filler
tank, and  none in the expansion tank. It seems that the coolant is being pushed
out of  the expansion tank when it's working hard, but when things start to
cool down  (?) and the coolant shrinks (?) the coolant is not being drawn from
the filler  tank, and I end up with a dry expansion tank and a blinking coolant
light,  which leads to a little bit of swearing and a quick pull-over to the
side of  the road.

I can siphon the coolant out of the filler tank by removing  the hose from
the expansion cap and drawing it into a bottle. I can't open the  filler tank as
the coolant level is higher than the filler cap. The back of  the Westy is
covered in specks of coolant. Once I've manually equilabrated the  coolant
level, we're good to go until the next downhill run or cool-down  period, and then
this starts all over again.

Between trips, over the  past month I've done the following:

New expansion tank cap;
New hose  between filler tank and expansion tank;
New Thermostat;
New Pipe between  water pipe & thermostat housing; (Thanks Frank!)
New hose between this  pipe and the t-stat housing;
New Gauge temperature sender;
Bleeding,  bleeding, bleeding.

When I replaced the water pipe, I did a poor job of  reseating a clamp, so I
lost some coolant yesterday. I reseated the clamp  properly topped it up and
rebled the system - this was all before the  expansion tank ran dry yesterday.

What could be causing this  phenomenon?

I'm currently parked in Osoyoos BC at a park with wireless,  but I can't send
outgoing emails. I'm also a digester, so please cc: any  responses to this
pmail  account.<<<<<<<<<

Cheers,

Frank  Condelli
Almonte, Ontario, Canada
'87 Westy & Lionel Trains (_Collection for sale_
(http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/trainsal.htm) )
_Frank Condelli &  Associates_ (http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/busindex.html)
- Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley
_Vanagon Stainless Steel Exhaust  Systems_
(http://members.aol.com/Fkc43/exhaust.htm)
_BusFusion_ (http://members.aol.com/BusFusion/bfhome.htm)  a VW Camper
camping event, Almonte, ON, June 12 ~ 15,  2008