Coolant Parts...

[herman_t25]

Morning All,

sorry in advance for a question on coolant/cooling!

The other week my beloved t3 decided to dump all of its coolant on the carpark at the beach. not really his fault as the jubilee clips were rotten and the pipe was held on with hopes and dreams... anyway I'm going to give it a good going through as the coolant had zero colour to it and I don't think its been done for a long time.

I'm planning to go through and replace all the jubilee clips at every point and any hose that looks like its seen better days (which will probably be most) but the pipes running from the back to front are rubber currently. this was the area that kindly let all the coolant out! Now I'm new to T3's and from what I understand they ran metal pipes front to back which they now do a rather nice stainless set for.

Is this the thing to fit or is there something else?

the coolant itself is the stuff from brickwerks good ? is there anyone to avoid?

is there anything that's a 'MUST' to do or replace when changing all the coolant over? I'll take the rad off and flush that through too make sure its okay?

cheers 

 

[Robsey]

You have no worries about Brickwerks as a supplier.
They are very knowledgable about T3's and can give you any advice that you need.
Probably one of the best in the UK.

If they recommend a specific coolant, then that is the one you need.

Schofields are very good. And can also be trusted implicitly.
Prices are not as cheap, but carriage is usually very competitive and often free.(dependent upon sale amount)

Heritage are also very good.

The companies people often advise to avoid are-
Just Campers... a lot of bad feedback about them.
Also watch for parts from Euro Car Parts etc.
A lot of cheap and tacky crud mixed in with the odd decent branded part.

Our vans are very specific as to which coolant specification to use. This is not an item to get from your local autofactors with zero amounts of T3 knowledge.

Stainless steel pipes are not an absolute must, any new pipes will probably out last the van.
Remember to get the correct diameter pipework.
There are differences between 'early' and 'late' pipework diameter.

Finally, the last stage of bleeding the van requires the front of the van to be 10cm / 4" off the gound - or
10cm higher at the front, than the rear.

Otherwise, there are plenty of useful posts on the forum regarding coolant and coolant system overhaul / servicing.

[cobblers]

In my experience it's quicker, easier and more successful to bleed these using a bike pump to add pressure to the system than jacking the thing up.

If you are doing major work to the cooling system I would personally fill it up with plain water first of all - run it up to temperature and get it bled up properly to make sure you have no catastrophic leaks etc before draining and refilling with the proper antifreeze (Purple quantum stuff from brickwerks)

[DoubleOSeven]

Don’t use jubilee clips, Volkswagen didn’t - use expansion clamps. Hot water expands with pressure, so these clamps allow that - taking the pressure off the pipe. Maybe the reason yours failed. Front to back pipes you have, being plastic are the ‘late’ type and will be fine. It’s only the ‘early’ vans with metal pipes that need replacing with SS. Bleed the system twice with a few hundred miles between, as per Simon Baxter’s excellent write up, see below. You must bleed it twice, don’t think it’s all ok because it seems fine after a hundred miles, I can’t stress this enough. Plumbers don’t jack up your house when they bleed your radiators, so why would you jack up your van? Sorry, Robsey - but that’s a T3 myth.

[DoubleOSeven]

First off, if you are filling a completely empty system, undo the bleed screw on the radiator, like we said earlier water finds it's own level, if you don't the job will take longer and you will use more fuel!
make sure heater controls for front and rear heater if fitted are in the hot position.
So, pour in neat antifreeze first until you can't get anymore in.
Close the bleed screw.
Fit header tank cap.
Start engine.
Remove cap, now pour as much coolant in as you can.
Once you can't get anymore in, rev the engine to 2000rpm ish.
The coolant level will drop, add more coolant till you can't get anymore in.
Keep revving, screw the cap back on, if you let go of the revs without the cap on and the level will swiftly rise and you will have just wasted a "pooh" load of new antifreeze onto the floor, well done!
Okay, Got all your antifreeze in yet? You need to get that in first before you put any water in.
Go to the cab and give it a right good rev!, like a right good up to the redline rev!
Go to the radiator, undo the bleed screw and let some air out.
Go to the back, undo the header tank cap and add some more coolant, if the level has dropped a load, rev it to 2000 rpm again and get a load in till no more will go, cap on.
Go to cab, give it a rev, go to rad, let some air out.
Once you get to a piont where it feels like you can't get much more coolant in, then go to the cab and have a break, sit down for a minute and keep it revving at 2000 rpm to get it to warm up quicker.
To make it look like you really know what you are doing, flick the heater on and see if the heaters are starting to blow warm, for a real manly "I'm a mechanic me" look, set the heaters to demist and hold your hand above the vents, works great and if the missus is watching you may even get a brew out of that one.
If the heaters aren't even tepid yet, rev the nads off it again.
The heater circuit isn't controlled by the thermostat, so the heaters work regardless of thermostat position.
Once the temp gauge starts getting towards 1/2 way best let some more air out so let it idle.
Go check water level.
Top up as needed.
About this time I like to fill the expansion tank up right to the brim and attach the pipe from the header tank to the expansion tank cap.
Give it a rev, let some air out.

Now, listen to this bit, it's kinda fundamental as to how the system works.
The cooling system is meant to run at about 1 bar of pressure, thats about 15PSI in old money, that means that the coolant won't boil until about 115°c
So, the header tank is full to the brim, the cooling system reaches 1 bar and a valve opens in the cap and lets the excess pressurised coolant out into the expansion tank, the level in the one behind the flap rises.
once the engine cools, the coolant cools and contracts, if the system were to be totally sealed you would get rubber hoses collapsing, so inside the header tank cap is a second valve, a vacuum valve, this opens at some pressure or other (dunno that) and lets coolant from the expansion tank back into the header tank.
This keeps the header tank constantly topped up with coolant and no air in the system.
Right...
back to bleeding..

What we are doing here is warming the cooling system to increase it's pressure, we are using this pressure to expell the air trapped at the highest point by letting it out of the bleed screw.
easy really when you think about it.
When did you ever see your plumber with a acro prop under your house jacking it up so he could bleed the radiators?
You didn't thats why, so why should you do it on your van?

Right.
Where is the temp gauge? as we mentioned before, the thermostat and fan do a really good job of keeping the engine temps stable, from new the gauge should come up to half and stay there more or less, just over half fan should come on, just below half and the thermostat will start to close and bring the temp back up.
If at any point the needle goes over 3/4's you may have a problem.

Always run the engine up to test the cooling fan works.

With the engine running, cap on and pip to the expansion tank connected, i find it helpful to unscrew the cap with the pipe connected to let the last bits of air out.

Go for a good run

Come back.

Let some more air out of the rad, once it runs warm water with no bubbles it's done.

let it cool, check level when clap cold in the expansion tank.

[Robsey]

Don’t use jubilee clips, Volkswagen didn’t - use expansion clamps. ...

Plumbers don’t jack up your house when they bleed your radiators, so why would you jack up your van? Sorry, Robsey - but that’s a T3 myth.

Nothing to apologise for - If I am ill informed, then I am happy to be corrected.

Although Bentley does suggest this in the manual.
"Raise by 10cm (4") under the front cross member"



I suppose I should not rely wholey upon the word of Bentley, but the author knows far more than I do.


All good sound information.

[DoubleOSeven]

No worries.

If anything I’d say have it nose down. That way the radiator gets full and you have space in the expansion tank to brim it. But nose up, you’d never fill the radiator before the expansion tank started over flowing, so you would struggle to get the pressure up, the whole point of the exercise.

Might be an air-con thing as Bentley is for the American Vanagons, dunno.

[herman_t25]

Thank you all for the help, I'm going to strip it all down tonight and do a shopping list. 

thanks again