hi.
what I was referring to ..
if you might be referring to something I wrote ..
is that someone was talking about plugging rear heater hoses,
or joining them .
and that some people thing one way is right or the other is ..
and what I am saying is ..
if you join the two hoses for the rear heater .( with no restrictors or
'calibrated crescent shapes ' ) ...
then you short circuit hot coolant ..
that you want to get completely to the front heater.

and ...good thing the rear heater valve will still allow some coolant flow
..
though rear heaters still rot out.
I recommend the rear heater valve be at least 2/3 on all year 'round.
- so that fresh coolant circulates full time through it.
Of course, as long as the fan is off, no hot air will come out of the rear
heater.

Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Beierl" <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 9:37 AM
Subject: Re: Rear Vanagon Removal

> At 08:23 AM 3/2/2011, Dave Mcneely wrote:
>>so, does that mean that opening the valve to heat  the rear heater
>>would be dumb?  It does the same thing -- shunts the coolant from
>>the delivery hose through the rear heater to the return hose.
>
> The valve when full open has a crescent-shaped opening with a small
> fraction (quick guess would be a fifth) of the area of the inside of
> the plastic nipple.  The two situations are not comparable even
> without factoring in that the otherwise wasted heat is available at
> the turn of a switch.
>
> Incidentally that valve also does not close completely: there's a
> tiny channel to allow just enough circulation to keep the coolant in
> the heat exchanger from becoming stagnant and attacking the aluminum.
>
> Yrs,
> d