Post-Post Mortem actually.

The bus is fine with the new coolant, I do not think it overheated, I 
think I was tripping the low coolant switch on the overflow tank.  The 
light was flashing, not steady (responding to Mr. Stones) but I don't 
think that LED is wired to ever be steady.  The temperature gauge needle 
was sometimes registering the engine as cool when the light would flash.

I still don't have an answer about why the bus would not fill with the 
front raised.  I filled it with the back raised, and bled it in this 
position as well.  I suppose now that it is full, to be safe, I will 
bleed it with the front raised again (my neighbors here in Midtown 
Atlanta are getting a real kick out of all this, BTW).

I think the white smoke, which disappears with the engine warm, is 
nothing but exhaust system condensation--the Catalyst does produce some 
H2O and short runs of the engine are never enough to burn off all the 
water that combustion process and catalyst produces.  We'll see how well 
the Van holds it's new coolant.

Sadly, the oil drain plug is so buggered up, I couldn't get it off 
(looking in the tool box for that set of easy-outs).  Oil will wait till 
next weekend and should not be nearly as interesting as flush and fill 
(or do I have to bleed the #%&@* crankcase as well).

BTW, all in line VW engines have timing belts, some are damaged by 
breakage and some are not.  My understanding of the situation is this: 
Diesels--it simply frys the engine, cylinder head, valve and piston 
damage (change your timing belt at 60,000 miles, maybe sooner); 8V 
Gasoline engines--belt breakage rarely leads to complications, change the 
belt to avoid getting stuck in Ada, Oklahoma, with no qualified support; 
16V Gasoline engines--breakage can cause damage sometimes, especially if 
the belt breaks under an engine load (my '92 Passat Variant broke one at 
38,000 miles and did no engine damage--must have broken after the engine 
load as it snapped under a Yellow traffic light while I was hurriedly 
making a U-Turn).  Hopefully I will have my '85 Vanagon reliable and 
trustworthy so I can dump the Passat before I have to replace the belt on 
MY nickel.

_______________________________________________________________________________
Donald Baxter              dbax@netcom.com         Atlanta, Georgia USA
________________________________                   404.874.3292

1992 VW Passat Variant
1985 VW Transporter (Vanagon) GL
18# Calico Cat (Betty)
6# Runt Tabby (Agnes)
Beat up old house in the center of nasty Atlanta
1975 Motobecane Gran Jubilee (still ride it, can't seem to part with it)