Club 80-90 Forums

Hi Everyone,

My van has sprung a leak. After a drive in the heat and traffic I parked up and heard a hiss I looked under the van to see coolant pouring out of the pipe that connects the subaru engine into the vw cooling system. The temp gauge hadn't got to high prior to th leak.

The conversion is done with rjes parts and it connects to the vw cooling system which I believe is the older type as the van is 1983.

Does anyone know of any garages around north london that they could recommend?

Grogg wrote:Hi Everyone,

My van has sprung a leak. After a drive in the heat and traffic I parked up and heard a hiss I looked under the van to see coolant pouring out of the pipe that connects the subaru engine into the vw cooling system. The temp gauge hadn't got to high prior to th leak.

The conversion is done with rjes parts and it connects to the vw cooling system which I believe is the older type as the van is 1983.

Does anyone know of any garages around north london that they could recommend?

Try tightening all the clamps first

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

Great I’ll give that a try. The conversion has only one expansion tank how full does this need to be?

Also any tips on how to bleed the system in case I have air in there now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You should still have two plastic water tanks in the engine bay with the rjes setup. One by the license plate, one on the right hand side. Are you sure there's only one?

The last picture is the pipe where it was leaking. It did look to be coming out of where the jubilee clips connect


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looks like a nice install, but yes you are missing a tank. The blue dalek cap on your expansion tank (which should be brim filled to the top) is not connected to anything- the blue spout should lead to another tank by the license plate (an overflow tank), just like a stock setup.
Maybe your setup has a blanked off dalek cap to hold pressure(so much that it's blowing a hose connection) instead of releasing coolant into the overflow.
Does coolant not squirt out of the blue dalek cap when it's hot??

I'll take a photo later, I need to be in there anyway..

I’ve never seen any coolant coming from the blue spout. I haven’t used the van much since the conversion due to the pandemic.

the conversion was done buy a garage recommended to me by rjes so am surprised that they’ve not added the other tank. The Dalek cap doesn’t look like it has been blanked.

This pipe is definitely part of the problem
It’s cracked and is dripping coolant out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Have you tested the cap.

Vanagon cooling system: Pressurized coolant Blue Cap test. - YouTube
 

yes, you deifnitley need the overflow tank from your original wbx engine setup, and it should go in the same position as stock.  can you ask the garage if they still have the tank left over? That part of the 'conversion' should remain as it did from vw, its just that the tank you have has been relocated to the right hand side.

as said, test the dalek cap you have, and brim fill the tank you have. then you need to know if water comes out of it when pressure rises.

Thanks for the help guys much appreciated.

I have ordered the coolant reserve tank (burp tank) and the hose I can see that is broken.

The cap is fine on the quack test.

I have also ordered a combustion leak tester hopefully I haven’t cooked the engine. But don’t think it got too hot. So fingers crossed.

Am I right in thinking that to bleed the system I would just do for a normal wbx engine. Highlighted in this thread:

http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/bleed ... 29710.html


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep, bleed the same as any

The engine bay looks so roomie with an EJ in it.

Yes they're very neat and tidy. Not nearly as much ancillary wiring or plumbing