I thought of buying a higher pressure radiator cap for my 5.7 IROC. The one I have now is a month old Stant 16 lb. ventilated Lever Cap. Would an 18 lb. vented cap be better, to keep more fluid in the radiator to cool the engine? It seems too much radiator fluid is going into my overflow.

Thank you for your response.

 

All a higher pressure cap is going to do is allow the coolant to get a couple degrees warmer before boiling over. It won't fix any cooling problems that are causing it to boil over in the first place.

 

Hi old Phart,

This is more of a cooling question so I'm moving it to the Cooling board.

Apeiron speaks wisdom btw.

 

Define "too much fluid".

What temp is the car running at? Change the thermostat to adjust your temperature, not the radiator cap.

 

180 thermostat, temp around 210, 100 degree Arizona "dry" heat. Just want to keep more coolant in the radiator.
Thanks.

 

Sounds more along the lines of you need a more efficient cooling system. Increasing the pressure is more of a bandaid, as Ape said.

You could use an 18lb cap, no problem. I run a 24lb cap, but I don't have a stock cooling system. Just a side thought, have you tried pressure testing your current cap? If you're losing coolant to the overflow at a pretty good rate, your current cap could be weak.

 

If you had no radiator cap at all, glycol coolant mixed 60/40 won't boil until around 225 degrees F. A 15 PSI cap will increase the boiling point to around 270 degrees F.

There should never be coolant overflowing into the reservoir unless the engine becomes seriously overheated. If that does happen though, the purpose of the reservoir is to catch the overflowing coolant and recycle it back into the system as the engine cools, so that you're not stranded with a dry rad.

 

Hi: one question: turn on a/c is better to cooling or not?

 

Turning on the A/C increases the load on the engine, producing more heat. The ECM will turn the fan on when the A/C is running to compensate.

 

Turning your heat on will help a bit....actually quite a bit. My brothers Blazer used to heat up quicker than all hell....so we started driving around with the heat on...kept it at operating temp...at lights or stops it would go up a little but not enough to overheat anymore....so if you have a small heating problem turn the heat on for a bit.

P.S. I bought a 19lb Moroso cap...I also have stewart stage 2 pump, 180 stat, silicone hoses, Royal Purple Coolant Additive. Coming soon will be griffin radiator, flex-a-lite tranny cooler. Then I'll be done for a while on my cooling system....as I soon will want to go auto-x or track racing.

 

hi guys , whith a/c turn on,the R.P.M. of fan(single) are hi or not ?

 

I didn't think there were any single-fan setups with A/C. Our fans are single-speed, so the fan is either on high speed, or off.

 

Thanks a lot Apeiron