I'm making a custom overflow tank out of an aluminum sports bottle and I need to add a vent. Can I use a fitting like this

Tee Adapter

one side of the barb would have the hose coming from the radiator and the other barb would be the vent. Male thread would thread into the bottle.

Or will I have to run separate lines?

 

if you do that, coolant will blow right out the vent. It needs to be seperate

 

The overflow bottle needs to be hooked up from the bottom so that when the coolant cools down the radiator can suck the fluid back in. Vent goes on top.

 

That's what I thought... thanks

 

The sports bottle might be too small, if the coolant begins to boil it could fill that up really easily and when it cools back down you might not have enough coolant in to fill the radiator back up. Over time you could loose a lot of coolant.

You will want to have the line to the radiator on the bottom of the overflow bottle. The vent goes on the top.

 

I got it all together and put in the car today.



Ran the line from the radiator to the bottom of the bottle, and got a little creative with the vent. I found a fitting that had a 3/8" nipple on the end and put one of those little breathers they sell at AutoAdvancePepBoyZone on it. Add some black spray paint and some faux-carbon fiber wrap and voila. I need to find a better way to mount it to the car. The zip-ties are working for now.



Not bad for less than $25 in materials

 

Cool idea. Have you driven the car with this yet? Does it work good? No like loss of coolant or any major overflow yet?

 

Nothing yet, but I've only driven it about 3 miles in a little bit of stop and go traffic.Not sure if I will have to move the bottle up or leave it where it is.We'll see

 

I drove the car over the weekend and noticed coolant leaking from somewhere. Figured out that the bottle was sitting too low and the coolant was spilling out the vent. One trip to the local K-Mart for a bracket ( aka - sports bottle holder) and it sits a little higher.

 

Good idea! How did you make out? Any new pictures and/or ideas?

 

No new ideas. Everything has been working fine.I may make a different bracket for it, not sure yet.

Eventually I'm gonna spring for one of those fancy tanks they sell at summit.