Placement of the reservoir bracket | Notice the two bolts (adjacent to purple dots) holding the modified VW reservoir bracket to the VW airbox bracket, just behind the copper pipe. At the top you can see the reservoir (#1) lifted up (so we could photo the bracket). You can see where the reservoir is tee'd into the copper coolant pipe. We added a temp-guage which seemed like a great idea at the time (for troubleshooting). Temp sender (#2) is visible at the bottom of the photo. Until the system is properly bled, a horizontally opposed engine will gladly overheat without opening its thermostat. The temp guage turned out to be of little help because it remains at 'room temp' until the thermostat opens. We installed the tempguage behind the licence plate - you can't check your oil there anymore. It's not easy to fill a "flat" engine with water as you'll see. It takes lots of 'burping' (squeezing hoses etc, not related to beer) and other attempts to outsmart it. |
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Reservoir plumbing | #1The hose from the reservoir to the cross-pipe is a section from a formed VW hose that has a 45 degree bend. #2 is the copper tee into the crosspipe. |
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Coolant routing | Right front corner of the engiine compartment, looking up from below. Here's a copper pipe with an elbow angling upward past the valve cover. It comes from the thermostat. You can see both branches as they plumb into the big plastic vanagon pipes. The two smaller hoses above go to the "heater". We bent the heater in/outlets a little to relieve some of the congestion in this area, but there's not a lot you can do. Notice there is a 'spring clamp' next to a screw-type clamp. That's because the spring clamp allowed a leak. It's just sitting there.
Band of hose around the copper pipe cushions the copper where it would otherwise buzz on the valve cover. |
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Looking down from the top | Looking down from the top, cut the reservoir mount flush with the vertical support on the right side. Weld the square tube to the rez mount if you can. Notice the sq-tube is welded against the vertical support (upper right). You'll have to drill some holes in the square tube (not drilled yet) and matching holes in the VW airbox bracket. You may need some washers to get it to fit as the airbox bracket is not as smooth as it looks. |
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"One inch" square tubing is the perfect spacer. | Bottom of the bracket is flush with bottom of square tubing. You could just flatten the 'flange' with a hammer, or attach the square tube by bolting a flat plate across the bottom of the mount and the bottom of the sq-tube. Top of square tubing is the contact surface. Basically you're mounting the bottom of the reservoir mount one inch below the VW airbox support. One possible source of square tube is your local "Salvation Army" or "Goodwill Stores". They often have $5 chairs or some other cheesey furniture item that contains at least 6 inches of light-guage square tubing. |
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 | Manually operated front burp tankTo assist the bleeding process we put a burp tank up front. The black rubber hose extends from the "Kennedy bleed valve" into the coolant so you can eject air without drawing air into the system.You could remove it after a week or so when you're certain the system is bled. If permanent, restrict the opening; otherwise flocks of insects will do a "Jim Jones routine" in your coolant. Wasserboxer owners should consider this arrangement too, especially if having trouble bleeding. |
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 | Can't check the oil anymore!We put the temp guage behind the license plate door. Notice the burp tank remains in the same location. Those are power steering hoses.The VW temp guage on the dash works great with 20 to 27 ohms resistance. Otherwise the Subaru sensor will push the VW guage a little too high (aesthetically). 20 ohms puts the needle just above the LED. 27 Ohms puts it just below the LED. You decide. |
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Q: Does Copper pose an electrolysis issue?
I used Copper pipes because Hobert said it's OK. If he doesn't say something, it may be because he didn't have time to address it. But if he says "something is OK", then he does so in about three words and there is a mountain of knowledge behind it. Hobert will become your Guru, but keep your questions short and precise. Copper and aluminum with old, spent coolant in the system sounds like a battery waiting to happen. But as long as the Copper pipes are not 'grounded' but suspended in rubber (as is the case) there is no 'return path' for the circuit thus no electrolysis with the aluminum. I compare it to a battery, sitting on the shelf at the store. The potential is there but the cicuit is not closed thus no electrolysis. That's my understanding and if anyone has true knowledge that I'm wrong, please email!
Copper pipes are used long-term in both house plumbing and wiring. Aluminum was used in house wiring briefly in the 1960s but never for plumbing. Perhaps using extended-life coolant for the better anti-corrosion properties is a good idea. To be honest I am so happy to get that Wasserboxer outta there I don't even think about wasserboxer trivia anymore.
Hey! Don't let old-world WBX trauma stop you. There's a 137hp, 6000rpm lump in your van and some poor bastard is waiting to give you money for the WBX that tumbled out. It's sitting on your garage floor, still electrolyzing while you fret over a theory! Life is good!! Press on, the open road awaits!!!!
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Q: Other cooling system tips? Here are some hints that are VERY important, especially when you touch the key and your beautiful new lump purrs, but overheats.
You want to drive it - don't.
Pour water on the cylinders. This is a foolproof temp-guage that you can "read" from the engine compartment. There are pockets on top of the cylinders where the water will 'well-up'. When these boil, the motor is already 30 degrees overtemp - shut it off NOW, because you haven't properly bled your system yet. Normal temp guages will not 'read' until water starts flowing. If you overheat the engine you can ruin the headgaskets. Be careful. Don't forget this tip. When all-else is in question, boiling water tells no tales.
Hobert has some instructions on "level cooling-system bleeding". We found that method to be the final, most certain method. Read and follow as best you can.
The leftrear to rightfront coolant cross-tube should be level, which suggests solid as opposed to rubber. Pockets of steam that can't burp is a big problem. When designing, be sure that when car is level, bubbles can make it out to the coolant reservoir.
We soldered 12ga housewire loops to "bead" the end of our copper pipes about 1/4" from the end. We stripped Romex to get the wire, wrapped around a smaller pipe, then sprung it to the 1.25 pipe, with the ends filed to butt together perfectly. This method worked very well and I highly recommend it. I think the beads are important. Think "Farfromleakin". You don't want to go back there......
We did not purchase any radiator hoses. ALL hoses were cut from the VW's hoses. We were very happy about this small victory. We had to buy heaterhose though.
This is an absolute MUST: There must be constant cross-flow past the thermostat or the Subaru will overheat everytime you start it. The temperature of this 'crossflow' is what controls the Subaru thermostat.We wired the rear foot-heater open permanent as Hobert suggests, which is a tried and true method to get the crossflow. I wonder if it would be better that the crossflow did not pass thru the heater core.....but it seems to work fine. Theory - imagine the case where you're climbing a mtn pass in 2nd gear, and you turn on the rear heater fan. Will cooling the crossflow tell the thermostat to close? Go ahead and ponder that - my system seems to work fine in spite of the theory. In any case, during the initial bleeding, if your engine is "boiling water" (as described above), be sure this circuit is open. Ours was open and it still "boiled water" many times before we determined that the real cause was that the waterpump couldn't pump because we simply hadn't 'bled the system' properly.
Feel the *heater hoses* where the water exits the engine and returns. The thermostat will not open before BOTH hoses are HOT.
Remove your thermostat and test it before filling the engine with coolant. Use the boil/thermometer method on your kitchen stove, or buy a new one. At some point during this bleeding exercise you're going to proclaim it as faulty anyway, so test it up front so you don't have to go thru the whole thing (i.e. coolant running into your armpits).
At some point, before you close up the cooling system, think about how you might fill the engine with water so the pump does not cavitate. Stick a gardenhose in there and think "FILL FILL FILL and BACKFILL". We raised the right front of the car to get the reservoir higher and to tip the cross-pipe up a little so the bubbles could run up to the reservoir.
Rapidly squeezing or "pumping" the rubber elbow (water hose) near the powersteering pump was very effective in bubbling air up to the reservoir. You can hear the bubbles gurgling out.
Bleeding the system was a HUGE crisis that took two days for the first VW, but only two hours for the second because we KNEW a few things. The system just doesn't want to work on its own, and it's difficult to outsmart. You'll think you left a rag in a hose. Don't do that, but just remember that it's easily upset to where the pump cavitates and you get zero flow.
We bought Hoberts cooling system bleeders - best money you'll spend. Even wasserboxer owners should buy this kit. We also put gatorade bottles (seethru) up front with a seethru hose up front to help prevent bubbles from getting in. After driving/revving, we parked the van with the nose very high, let sit a few minutes, and used Hobert's front-bleeder to expel the air (under pressure).
After running a little while, all the hoseclamps needed to be tightened again as well as the exhaust bolts. And for several days, we were burping more air out of the radiator up front with Hobert's front bleeder and our new "no bubbles" gatorade-bottle burp tank! Burp hot, then suck the coolant back when cold.
Some words from Hobert Kennedy of Kennedy Engineered Products, gleaned from the Subaru-vanagon LIST:
Maybe I need to be more forceful in explaining why you should not try to use PVC plumbing. (normal running temp will melt PVC).
The water system will not flow if there are any air pockets in the system.
The water system will not flow if the thermostat does not see the hot water
returning from heater circuit so both heater valves must remain open or
install a bypass across the heater circuit.
The Subaru thermostat never opens like most cars. It only opens a little when it
needs a sip of cold water from the radiator which remains cool.
The Subaru thermostat keeps the engine so warm that the overheat light stays
on in some vans. A low water level also will make the overheat light come
on .
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