replacing radiator on '84 VW turbo rabbit?

Despite a thorough flush, mine appears to be defunct. How hard of a job is it to replace? A one-person job on a saturday? Two people on a weekend? More? Suggestions / warnings / Caveats / hints welcome. Thanks!

Reply to
Reid Fleming
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Pretty easy, unless the "turbo" adds some complexity to the job. You ought to be able to do this yourself, remove fan as assembly, remove hoses, remove radiator. Assembly is the reverse etc. I'd buy a new fan thermoswitch rather than simply transfer the old one simply because they're known to fail and then you'll be good for another 15 years or so.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

It is a 2 hour job or less on a 84 GTI. about as much time burping and doing the R&R.

So what does defunct mean? I have had them start leaking at the seams but never clog. I do have one on my 22 year old truck that needs to be cleaned. I have replaced water pumps that have failed on a few cars. Some water pumps use plastic impellers that get loose and do not pump so swell. There are also different impeller sizes. If you install one that is too big you have a problem. One that is too small and it will not pump properly.

It has been a while but I think you can leave the fan attached to the radiator. I would go one step further and replace the water thermostat by the water pump.

Note that there is a burping process for these cars. I fill up the radiator any way I can. I dump antifreeze in the top of the radiator if it has a top. I dump it in the long top hose. I think in 84 they have a coolant reservoir which I leave the top off of until it has finished burping. I leave the heater control to full hot inside the car. Important to know that the radiator can take up to another quart, more or less of antifreeze after you fill it. There is a big air pocket somewhere that takes a bit of time to get free.

If you have a factory turbo diesel it may not burp the same way as gas engine. The gas engine makes plenty of heat on its own that burps if there is fluid flowing around the thermostat by the water pump. Once that thermostat opens up the air works its way out. My 2003 diesel does not make a lot of heat at idle but it burped out ok. Note that the 2003 engine and cooling system while similar to a 84 is not quite the same.

Reply to
Jim Behning

When I bought it a year or so ago, my mechanic gave it a going over and told me the rad was in bad shape and would need to be replaced soon. A week ago I had it flushed, and a couple of days later my wife takes it out and goes for a spin, calls me at work to tell me there's white "smoke" pouring out from under the hood. When I get home and go over it I find:

- it's really hard to start, sometimes "gets stuck", like it starts to turn over and then just stops. keep twisting the key and it sometimes starts

- engine "misses" a lot, really really rough idling

- _lots_ of white smoke from exhaust, doesn't go away

- inside of engine compartment wet with radfluid

- radfluid overflow tank is completely empty

- radfluid bubbling from where hose connects to radiator on the top on the passenger side

Called my mechanic and described the situation, he said that it sounded like the header gasket was bad and letting water into the engine which was filling one of the cylinders. Only one cylinder being full of water,

*eventually* it will start, but it'll run really rough and produce lots of white exhaust, not good for the poor thing at all.
Reply to
Reid Fleming

A classic case of a blown head gasket! Don't try to start it again, hydrolock can cause more damage..

SFC

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Reply to
SFC

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