I did a half *** search, gotta get to work. Any info on a cap in upper radiator hose would be real helpful. Thanks folks!!!!
Moroso makes an in-line filler. Got mine from "Southern Rods" but I'm sure Summit or the like carries them.
Rad PSI cap needs tobe highist point in all your cooling,if that's the hose then better then having it low,but expanion tank is best way,Ford did it back on the FE. Some of the high loop hoses I see scare hell out of me with the t****d steam bubble making poor flow and addinf a lot to over heating,and I see caps mounted low were as soon as it get hot it blow out water and steam stays. I saw Speedway has inline caps. You can fab some thing up,by grabing old br*** rad and hear soider remove top tank cut fab with the parts,tank dose not need to be as big as Ford did it,but it is better if more the just a hose"T"with cap.
Like Ben said you can buy them, or you could make one yourself. Just one point that could make a difference between a cooled motor and a blown one, make sure the filler is the highest point of the cooling system or you will suffer airlocks in the motor leading to a grenaded motor. If you cant do this, the thermostat housing can be drilled and tapped. Put in a suitable sized bolt (Only needs to be 3-4mm in diameter). When filling the car with water take out the bolt. fill the system until its full, run the car until the thermostat opens and any air in the motor will be expelled through this. Keep it running and topping up the water until a continued stream of water flows out un-interrupted. Cheers, Doc.
The in-line caps are good for converting cars with a high mounted plastic expansion tank to work without them. Cars like Renaults and 87-90 or so Jeeps. If the tank gets a leak the thing will never cool right, and it's hard to bleed the air from them. The radiator has no cap in the Jeeps and Renaults. The in-line cap right before the radiator works fine. It will work if it's not the highest point, but it's harder to bleed air. That's solved by one of the Prestone flush kits. Put the T adapter in a heater hose that is the highest point of the cooling system (or can be lifted up to be the highest) and use it to bleed air from the system. If you can get a metal expansion tank that is nice, but many cars have been built without them. The Ford tank is the only metal one I know of, could be used to replace the Jeep plastic tank with a few mods though.
Here is the Moroso part on Flower's roadster, we put a bleed valve in the top rad. tank to bleed air from it if necessary.
...water pump is the black thing bolted to the front of the block with the v-belt wrapped around the pulley. It's a little hard to see in that picture but it just has regular old Speedway pumps.
Thanks guys it will definitely be at the highest point. I have a mustang radiator and the cap will be hard to get to , I was even thinking of leaving tthe pressure cap on the radiator and just using the inline to fill.
Some 1975-78 Mustang IIs with factory equipped 302 V8 engines came with an insert in the upper hose ***embly that held the pressure cap. Once upon a time, they were common junkyard fodder, and those parts were easily scored anywhere. The cool part about them is that they're an OEM part that accepts an OEM cap and are the correct diameter to accept stock small block Ford upper radiator hoses. Just to open up another option for ya in your search.
You can leave the old cap there, though I would go up in pressure settings for that, if its going to push out water and more importantly steam you want it to do that at the highest point so use the right pressure cap on your in-line setup. If you leave the same cap on the radiator you could find its creating air locks in the top tank, once again a possibly nasty situation. Doc.
Scott: Old Rod needs some advice. I have the same setup SBC, stang rad, what bottom hose did you use, outlet favors center of rad, had to go to smaller fan 14" too clear, thought about moving outlet more towards side of rad? Understand this is factory rad but memory(although failing) tells me should not have top and bottom hose on same side? Also was going to move top outlet to other side? How does yours cool? Help is appreciated. Thanks Bob
I had major heart ache tryng to fab up a hose. So I got one of those stainless hose kits. It really solved my problem. It will be running soon,so ill let ya know how it cools! PS I have an extra one
Old Rod - I run a SBC in my T with a stock mustang radiator (inlet and outlet both on p***senger side). I used a swivel thermo housing (that i de-billeted and painted) so that i can catch the stock inlet. For a bottom hose i used to 90 degree elbows spliced in the center with a piece of copper tube. The one concern i have is the 14" fan. That is way to small. I used a 15" fan at first and it wasn't enough, even with a well designed shroud. Run at least a 17"!. This may take some raising, lowering, or repositioning of the radiator but it's well worth it. Try to get your fan centered as much as possible against the radiator core and run a shroud. Now that i have my setup all worked out it works very well and i have no overheating problems. Again i would suggest you get your setup as efficient as possible though. A 3-row mustang rad is barely enough to cool an SBC. If you don't get it right your not going to run cool.
Theoretically it could improve cooling but I made out ok without doing this. It will however make running the top hose alot easier. I just wanted to keep the radiator stock for ease of replacement and so i wouldn't void the lifetime warranty on the radiator.
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