I just put a new aluminum rad in my ride however due to space the top of the rad is slightly above the top of the intake manifold but below the top of the thermostat housing and the upper rad hose is angled down from the housing to the the rad. I have installed an expansion tank for overflow from the rad filler cap on the side wall of the engine compartment about 6" below the top of the engine and rad. I've always had problems getting good cooling on this engine so I'm hoping that the rad being slightly lower will not be a cooling system problem. Any thoughts?
Not quite sure on how it looks under your hood... but the basic idea is to make it easy for any air or steam in the system to rise up to the highers point of the cooling system, where it can remain without causing a problem. It sounds as if your thermostat is the highert point now, and an air bubble there might prevent the thermostat from getting hot and opening.
Water speed will push most bubbles out, eventually, as long as you have an expansion/overflow tank hooked up so no air ****s back into the system. Sometimes you can jack up the front of the car a foot to help get air out.
At worst, you may need a surge tank, like the Fords on the '60's had. Those were the first Fords with a cross flow radiator that was lower then the level of the heads and intake manifold.
Thermostat dose not work in a airpocket,if its at hightist point you should redesign to change it*. Over the years I've seen a lot of guys fight with a upper hose looped up high an back down at each end with a low rad. or even just getting over a bad design fan sit-up,were they have too take witch ever is the little bit higher end off an try an fill it,then like a monky F#@% a football try and get it on with water still in it. Yes it kind of works,but not great an looks bad to see a hose humped up,knowing its a sign the builder didn't know enough to fix it ,so just puts up with fighting with filling all the time. Looking around its fairly EZ to find old photos of this same screw up on some rods,but copying a screw up is not TAD. Hotrodding to me is about making better an faster,not copying things that work bad, like poor cowelsteering designs or other misstakes. *There are thermostat housings that are made that address the prob. that also have a rad cap on top of them and hose comes out level,or you can make one that amounts to a tank type design that bolts too manafold were the stock housing goes,but holds thermostat at bottom and hose outlet is much higher then stock an has a rad/cap at its top,as high as you need. The link gives you one type,but there are others an homemade also; http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Manifold-Filler-Neck,9013.html
We had that problem on a race car. Added a bleeder on the top of the housing. Tried a style with a rad cap but found out it would release a 30 lb cap on idle that's why most caps on the opposite side of the top hose fitting. Anyway in conjunction with an expansion tank the bleeder works perfect and system stays full. Good luck.
how would that effect the cooling? So here is a picture of the set up ---..the top of the intake/carb base is level with the top of the rad -- --- the thermostat is 1 1/2 " below the top of the rad -- --- the top of the thermostat housing is 2" above the top of the rad with the hose sloping down to the rad --- -- hood clearance is an issue for putting an inline filler in the rad hose--- -- the expansion tank is 8" below the top of the rad -- --- hoping any air in the thermostat housing or hose get pushed into the rad and then bled off into the expansion tank--- Hopefully I was able to attach a photo of the set up for review.
Not as bad as I was expecting. If you have heater hoses hooked up, fill the system through one of the heater hoses, it may get more of the air out.
Why not just add an air bleeder to the top of the thermostat housing? You could use a housing with a cast-in temp port and br*** adapters to fit a universal air bleed.
Yes, an air bleed is needed on top of the T-stat housing. Jim Laga (Kustom7777) had a shoebox Ford with a similar set up. We drove out to Ohio from Jersey and he was always overheating. Until we bled off the air from the highest point in the cooling system, the upper radiator hose at the T-stat. The next thing to do, is very important, as well. Put in a radiator overflow tank, one properly plumbed, so the radiator overflow hose goes into the bottom of the tank. So the natural expansion and contraction of the coolant as it heats and cools, will go into the overflow, and not introduce air back into the system. Use hose clamps on the overflow hose, so it can't **** in air there, too.
Some good ideas to consider. Someone else also suggested a 1/8 hole inthe thermostat and raising the front end up while being filled to eliminate possible air .
I actually did use this set up on a previously but was try8g to clean up the design. I may have to go back to it .
I just put this Dorman recovery tank on my Ford and it works very well. The over flow hose connects at the bottom, which you have to drill open, good luck. http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/dorman-oe-solutions-universal-603-001/
Attached is a picture of the modified set up. Note the fill block atop the intake and thermostat. This is now the high point of the system with and overflow line going to an expansion/recovery tank and the upper rad hose going slightly lower to the rad. I put a 16lb rad cap on the fill block /high point with the over flow hose going to bottom or the recovery tank.. I put a 24 -26 lb cap on the rad therefore hopefully insuring any overflow comes from the lower pressure cap on the fill block and form the highest point in the system. I maintained a secondary overflow tube from the rad fill cap to the upper fill point of the overflow tank just in case of something extreme and kept the overflow tank vented so it would be drawn back in through the line the bottom of the tank to the fill block.. Does this all sound logical?
This is the car with the 17"pusher fan in another Thread. If it was my car I would relocate the overflow bottle so it was higher than the thermostat housing so any air would bleed upwards rather than downwards. I would put a sealed cap on the radiator (I've welded mine shut) so the radiator is just for cooling and fill the engine via the thermostat housing. I would also look at the possibility of sloping the bottom of the radiator forward so it could sit lower and thus allow the top to move forward. This may give you enough room to put in a puller fan.
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