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I understand I'll need to drill and tap a port for the steam vents which is fine. That will be in the upper section of the tank on the expansion tank / radiator cap side.
The swirl pot is joined to the other side by some holes top and bottom of the chamber. Will these holes transfer the air to the expansion side to allow release? Will this system have a air head on it or will the whole tank just fill with coolant? I'm after the classic header tank which releases air through a preassure radiator cap.
How do I hook up the hoses, is the top of the swirl pot section the heater hose inlet and the bottom the outlet to the heater core? Will this have enough preassure to swirl or does this need to be hooked into the high preassure side of the system.
Also note the two bottom ports for return, do I T these or hook them to separate places.
My hope is this will be a good compact system for burping air from the system automatically.
I would call Radium and ask them, it's their product and I'm sure someone there is familiar enough with LS stuff.
If I had to guess, the steam ports would get hooked up to the top port on the swirl side. Then one of the lower ports (not sure which one) would get tee'd into the heater core return line. The other one on the bottom of the tank would probably be capped off.
That's just my guess though.
Actually here's a direct quote from the link you posted....
"Hot pressurized coolant from the cylinder head is sent into the vortex chamber's inlet..."
Hey mate! Have emailed them but they weren't very helpful...
"You can examine the layout of our coolant expansion tank and see if it will work for you. We have never installed on and LS engine so unfortunately we cannot advise on any details"
I'm just trying to work this out for my setup.
I know swirl tanks are great, but putting the steam vent to the top port won't actually be swirling much liquid just burping steam with the ocasional liquid in it.
I see some benefit in running flow through it to capture bubbles, but can't really work out where the bubbles go as there are only two drill holes separating the chamber.
There's a constant flow of coolant coming out of the steam ports. The term "steam port" is kind of misleading, because once all of the air is bleed or burped through these ports, there is no longer "steam" in the system. Take it from a guy with a see-though expansion tank.
These tanks are also called "degas" tanks. That's because they are the highest point in the system and that's where any air in the system will eventually collect. Once the pressure in that tank exceeds the cap's rated pressure, it will burp the excess air effectively degassing the system.
Wow mate thanks for your help! Top marks for you haha
How much flow will there be with the steam vents? If I run it like you suggest is there any benefit at all to the swirl tank side of it. Couldn't I just run a standard expansion tank which pours the steam tube coolant into a void which effectively removes the air?
I was thinking the benefit with this was to run a constant flow of the heater flow through the swirl to further remove any bubbles in there, not just the steam ports.
Also on a side note, are you running the radiator overflow to the coolant expansion tank too, above the waterline? If so, is it just capped off the radiator allowing free flow from that overflow nipple to the tank, or is it a preassure cap deal that when the radiator goes over a certain preassure then it releases the overflow to the expansion tank?
As far as the swirl deal, not sure. It seems to be a marketing scheme to me, but maybe there's some benefits, who knows. My tank & cap were like $60 so there's definitely cheaper options haha.
I'm not running the extra overflow on my setup currently because, unless you're going to the track, it's not really "needed". If I overheat or boil over (for some reason) it'll just puke coolant from the expansion tank. I watch my coolant temp like a hawk, so I'm not really worried about it. If you run the extra overflow tank it would be tied into the expansion tank and not the radiator. Also it doesn't matter where you mount the extra overflow tank, above or below the expansion tank, doesn't matter.
My setup has the overflow port under the radiator cap welded up. Also the radiator cap has to be rated at a higher pressure than your expansion tank cap, so the radiator cap never opens up to release pressure, the expansion cap will open first. I believe my radiator cap is 19psi and my expansion tank is rated at 1 bar or ~14.5psi.
Don't use the steam vents. Like said above there is no steam, just a very small flow of coolant. You will not see the benefit of the de-airation with such a low flow rate.
Water with lots of trapped air has less thermal capacity. The idea of such a tank is to separate the air from the coolant improving overall cooling performance. To do that you need a certain flow rate.
That tank will be under radiator pressure so it will be completely full of coolant. The cap is a standard radiator cap, you will still need a separate overflow bottle so it can suck coolant (and not air) back in as the motor cools.
Desecrate. Not sure if that is the word you meant to use but it works either way.
By the way GM refers to the "steam vent lines" as coolant bypass lines. Everyone gets that wrong leading to all sorts of hair brained explanations of what they do.
Vettes use a a de-airating tank such as that. Look up how they plump one in.
Don't use the steam vents. Like said above there is no steam, just a very small flow of coolant. You will not see the benefit of the de-airation with such a low flow rate.
Water with lots of trapped air has less thermal capacity. The idea of such a tank is to separate the air from the coolant improving overall cooling performance. To do that you need a certain flow rate.
That tank will be under radiator pressure so it will be completely full of coolant. The cap is a standard radiator cap, you will still need a separate overflow bottle so it can suck coolant (and not air) back in as the motor cools.
Desecrate. Not sure if that is the word you meant to use but it works either way.
By the way GM refers to the "steam vent lines" as coolant bypass lines. Everyone gets that wrong leading to all sorts of hair brained explanations of what they do.
Vettes use a a de-airating tank such as that. Look up how they plump one in.
The whole point of an expansion tank is to be high-pressure and low-velocity to effectively deaerate the coolant.
The expansion tank will only be as full as you fill it, plus or minus a small amount of expansion when the coolant gets hot. Look at my expansion tank, it's half full, it stays half full because it's the highest point in the system.
The extra overflow tank is not required with a surge/degas/expansion tank because it's not filled to the brim, like a radiator is.
Pop N Wood, if you're running an expansion tank yourself and it's filled to the brim, you're doing it wrong.
I think pop n wood many that if I run high pressure into the swirl tank for deairation instead of the steam vent at much lower velocity, I won't have air for expansion?
Is it possible to run something like this instead.
The first tank (sorry for the crap drawing) is a sort of swirl tank with a header air section on top. It's joined at top and bottom by a sight tube which connects and balances air and water in each bottle.
As the first bottle gets the full entrance of low preassure heater return (not just a T to the bottom) the air if any will rise to the top of the bottle. As your taking the water from the second bottle the air should be out of the water there and sucking it at low preassure flow to the heater return on the water pump.
As both bottles are joined at the top and bottom both air and water are equalized. In both bottles above the water. Line we can have connections for steam vents or bypass as pop said. And in the other bottle the radiator overflow. Although S14 has completely welded that shut so perhaps no reason for it as the bleed off the radiator?
If you can't tell already I'm very keen on having the water flow through the expansion bottle to release air bubbles actively along with the usual steam vents etc... I could be getting this horribly wrong but feel it's like most European expansion tanks that don't just run a T, rather they run it through the bottle allowing air to rise before the exit port.
Honestly man, I think you're trying to reinvent the wheel. But feel free to explore, it's your car after all. You have to understand that any air in the system is going to find it's way to the highest point in the system, which is going to be through the steam ports. We have an 08 LS3 Corvette here at my work (ProCharger) that has the factory expansion tank routed exactly like the diagram I have posted above. If GM (and many others btw) have designed their system this way from the factory, it's for a reason. My .02
There is no need for swirl anything, S14 has this well covered. You dont need anything fancy but if the Radium tank fits where you need it to go, then go for it.
But there are loads of OEM cars you can get a remote header tank from and use. I've a tank of an Audi A4 or something like that on mine, but I've used older VW tanks like S14's before too.
And a see through OEM tank is handy so you can see there is fluid in the tank.
So I’ve read this whole thread. And I read that someone asked about the steam port line and how radium says it supposed to goto the inlet of the swirl pot. That just doesn’t make any sense to me cause a swirl pot would need some pressure behind the coolant to make it swirl the steam port line would just dribble or not be enough to cause a swirl . It seems as if the radium for LS use is not worth it. It’s been 7 years since this thread I’m in hopes someone knows something different on how to plum this radium expansion tank
So I’ve read this whole thread. And I read that someone asked about the steam port line and how radium says it supposed to goto the inlet of the swirl pot. That just doesn’t make any sense to me cause a swirl pot would need some pressure behind the coolant to make it swirl the steam port line would just dribble or not be enough to cause a swirl . It seems as if the radium for LS use is not worth it. It’s been 7 years since this thread I’m in hopes someone knows something different on how to plum this radium expansion tank
There is literally no better way to plumb this or any other expansion tank for that matter with an LS. You're getting hung up on the whole "swirl" gimmick. It will be fine, I promise. Hook it up, start it and floor it
There is literally no better way to plumb this or any other expansion tank for that matter with an LS. You're getting hung up on the whole "swirl" gimmick. It will be fine, I promise. Hook it up, start it and floor it
alright my other concern for the radium expansion tank. Is it even big enough to handle a LS cooling system
09-22-2016, 01:31 AM
Radium Engineering Coolant expansion / swirl 
