-------------------------
Eric,
I recently replaced the radiator with a new german one on my 86 and it
appeared to be copper. At the risk of dating my self many farm tractors had
copper radiators in times past.  Copper makes a great radiator now all we
need is a good permanent way to bond plastic to it.
      A note on the rear heater if you use a pipe to connect the hoses
together your front heater will loose most of its coolant circulation.  The
2 heaters on my 86 are in parallel, and appeared to be stock that way.  A
good way to remove the rear heater and solve this problem would be to remove
the Tees on the heater hoses and install a plain 5/8 inch coupling.  I
posted  some information on my recent hose experience , many substitutions
and have it posted at     http://taos.midwest.net/vw   .

Darrell Boehler
Makanda Illinois

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Brown <ebrown@ADOBE.COM>
To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM <Vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Date: Wednesday, April 22, 1998 7:08 PM
Subject: Removing rear heater (Putting copper in coolant line)

>The previous owner of my 87 Van found that the rear heater had a coolant
>leak. So he removed it and didn't do a very good job gerry rigging the two
>coolant hose connections together. So, I undid his gerry rigging and got a
>standard piece of 3/4" copper hot water tubing and bent it into a U and
>connected to two coolant hoses under the bench seat. (Before, the tubes
were
>connected straight on and were crimping thus allowing very little coolant
to
>flow.)
>
>Does anybody know if this copper is going to react in a very bad way with
>the coolant or if there is a better way to solve my problem. I was told the
>rear heater never puts out much heat in vanagons anyway.
>
>Thanks,
>Eric
>