Real Time help, 84 Westy Overheating

[Masonrmm]

Hello,

My relative is stuck on the side of the road in Kingman AZ and I offered to ask some questions for him to the pro's here on Samba. Westy is a 84 waterboxer. All stock no mods, and no other real issues other than this coolant leak.

Info I have so far:

Van rear heater was leaking badly. He stopped and got a hose barb and connected two hoses that attached to the heater.

Van is now overheating very quickly. Primary and secondary overflow tanks are completely full.

His guess is that he got air trapped in the cooling system and wants to park on a hill and see if he can burp it, otherwise he's going to have to get towed back to Havasu. Does this sound correct? Is there something else he can check to verify the guage isn't just faulty?

Thanks in advance

[Steve M.]

Remove the hose barb connecting the rear heater hoses and plug them individually with a bolt, tree branch or whatever you can find that will fit the hoses and clamp them tight.

Doesn't sound like it's logical considering it makes a loop through the heater, but it will make a difference in the overheating.
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[Ahwahnee]

[Wildthings]

The system should easily be able to purge a reasonable amount of air. I agree with not using a coupling between the two rear heater hoses as that acts as a bypass to the radiator. You should still have pretty fair cooling though, did you try cracking the bleed screw on the radiator? Doing so will let any air trapped in the radiator escape.

If the heater suddenly started leaking way worse and you are seeing full coolant tanks, then it may be that you have a bad pressure cap. Less likely is that you have a combustion leak into your cooling system.

[Masonrmm]

Thanks for the replies, I just got off of the phone with him. I found a bleeding procedure on here and sent it to him. He was able to mostly complete it on the side of the road (on a hill) and has gotten the Van back home to Havasu.

I'm going to email him these responses so he can look them over. I know he wants to just bypass delete the rear heater so hopefully these will shed some light on that project.

[Steve M.]

Also tell him to join the Forum ! 😁
_________________
This free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

There are seven days in a week. Someday is not one of them.

[Swheels]

Absolutely check the gauge! This is a post that helped me sort out an "overheating" issue that turned out to be not an overheating issue.

[brundl3fly]

Hi everyone, thanks for the help. I am the subject of the OP's question so I am actually a forum member, just under distress at the time and he checked in for me.

Bottom line was it was what I and others were thinking: air bubble in the coolant stream due to the removal of the rear heater core lines. The heater core was leaking pretty severely and when I was inspecting it the white cap snapped off which made it very much worse (and maybe began the ntro of air to the system, I don't know). I went to the parts store and got a double barb in 5/8" and took the hoses off the heater core, placing the barb between them.

This solved the leak but then afterward the temp light came on. After you all confirmed my suspicions I went back to the van and cracked the 14mm bolt on the radiator. I heard hissing immediately. I left the bolt off and removed the caps from both tanks in the back. I filled the one with the blue cap (not the normal fill tank, sorry I don't know the exact term for it and don't want to call it something wrong) and squeezed the air out of the hoses before starting up. Back at the radiator fluid had leaked out so I thought most the bubbles were gone. I put everything back and checked level again. The drive after that was fine all the way home (over an hour).

I had heard some people saying that putting the 2 hoses together could cause issues? Not enough restriction I think? The barb marries the hoses together at a pretty severe angle which pinches them off pretty good, that may be introducing enough restriction to emulate the heater core that is now missing. Thoughts?

Now I'm chasing down why the oil light comes on at idle. Always something! In that case I had a severe leak at the oil sender. It was replaced but on this first long trip afterward I noticed the oil light come on when the van was warm and the temp outside was warm. I'm thinking the emergency oil I'd put in when I was shooting oil all over the back of the van from the faulty sender is too low of viscosity for conditions and I need to change to 20w-50. I have an oil change scheduled now.

[Wildthings]

If you have normal bearing clearances you should never need 20w50 oil. I would put a gauge on your system (remove the pressure oil pressure switch to do this) and see what your oil pressure really is. Until it proves itself otherwise I don't put much faith in a new oil pressure switch.

When filling and bleeding the system you want to rev the engine until you see the level draw down in the pressurized tank (the one to the far left). Keep the engine revved until the tank is full and you have put the cap back on. A piece of a folded matchbook can be used to hold the throttle open.

[Yellow Rabbit]

I can’t remember the last time I saw a book of matches.

[Wildthings]