Overflow Tank question

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Eyvazk

I am being told that transparent canister is just a catch can, unlike traditional cars with Min and Max marks… basically you shouldn’t expect to see coolant in there under normal circumstances. So then how do I know how much coolant should I add. Thanks in advance.

A pic of your transparent canister would help, I'm sure it's different than my "surge tank" that is pictured two posts up. I fill that surge tank up about an inch and a quarter from its floor and leave the rest of the tank empty. The coolant system will then find its right level by squirting coolant out the cap, and down through the clear plastic tube, in to my catch bottle that is attached to the oil pan. If I filled the surge tank up completely it would just shoot it out the tube and fill up the little glass bottle and dump the rest on the street. A pic of my catch bottle is below. Once my system has found its correct level it can go months or even a year or two without squirting anything in to the bottle. But if I take her out on a really hot day, and run her really hard, I can generally get a little squirt in to the bottle. I change my coolant every four years and that's the only time I ever add coolant to my system and when I do I try to put just a little bit more than it wants so it squirts a little bit in to the bottle but not a lot because the bottle doesn't hold all that much. It was mainly designed to protect my dog, who spent countless hours under the car with me. My system does not draw the coolant back in from the bottle like every modern car in the world does. If it goes in to the bottle, it's basically gone. I tend to keep an inch or so of coolant in the bottle, not for any particular reason, I just do.