[Vwdiesel] '82 diesel vanagon overheating

[Harmon Seaver]

   I just got my '82 diesel westy going after sitting all Winter, was going to
leave today for a camping trip, but the battery had died (it was marginal
anyway, and overdue for replacing) so after charging it overnight I went and
bought a new one. Also got a new valvecover gasket and put that in to stop a
leak there.
   So I had it sitting in the driveway idling for awhile, just to check whether
the VC gasket leak was really fixed, and was puttering around getting the
camping stuff ready, when I noticed the temp gauge way over the center
mark. Never saw it there before. I had driven it around a bit yesterday and it
never got up to full center, but then it never does. I shut it off and heard
boiling noises in the rear, so started it up again and turned on the heat, but
no heat came out of the heater, so I shut the engine down. It boiled out a bit
from the resevoir tank, probaly a quart or two. 
   I felt the radiator as best I could sticking my hand in thru the grill --
didn't feel warm. What gives? 
   Once thing I noticed that was odd a couple of months ago -- there was some
coolant leaking out the rear by the tank, couldn't really tell where from, and
then it stopped just as mysteriously as it started. The camper was parked at a
fairly good slant with the nose up all Winter. When I checked coolant level the
other day before starting it, it seemed fine.
    Could the slanted parking have done something weird? It was parked in the
same place the Winter before too, but at least some of the time it was nose
down. 

 -- 
Harmon Seaver	
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com
Hoka hey!