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Thanks everyone with the replies. Badass68 does your coolant pressure drop off to zero at all while you are driving and how did you mount it in the radiator.
Only shows 0 when cold. While running it’s very steady. 10-14
Best way to install a coolant pressure sensor is in the top of a surge tank so the pulsations are dampened. Same goes for an exhaust back pressure sensor. (Tube running to small can)
I have the front and rear steam port lines each
configured in a tee then a single hose from each routed to the top of tank along with a pressure switch in the top with the bottom port going to the bottom of the radiator. You would need to run a sealed cap on the radiator or cut off the fill neck and weld a plate over it and run your pressure cap on the tank. There are threads about this you just need to do some searching. One of them is from the early 2000’s by a cooling system engineer that was a member.
The surge tank level needs to be 1/2 to 2/3 full and that level needs to be higher than the top of the radiator. Living in Arizona I wanted to have the most efficient cooling system possible and this is what I put together after hours of research. Tank needs to be at least two quarts as based by percentage of a typical f body system capacity. The bottom hose can be 5/8 or bigger and would need a bung welded in the radiator to be connected.
The steam port hoses need to run up hill and not have any drops in the run. There are many tidbits of information out there you just have to spend some time to put them all together. Have other ways worked ? of course, most live in climates that will not place the demand on a cooling system as they would here in the Arizona summer sitting in traffic.
Sorry guys it has been so long since I posted an update and thanks everyone for the great feedback. I have tried everything to this point other putting a surge tank on it.but this is a weekend car. So let me tell you what I have done, First of all I bought a vacuum evacuate for the coolant and pulled a vacuum on the whole cooling system because I thought I had air in it. I also put a burp funnel on it after I got done to make sure there was no air. I have tried looping the hose, drilling a hole in the tstat also. I did one at time refilled with coolant and I still have the same thing. I also moved my reservoir tank so that the bottom of it is above the radiator and I am gong out of the bottom of it now. I also put a clear hose from the reservoir tank to the radiator cap so I can see what was going on. It is moving coolant back and forth when the cap relieves. Also at no point does thing run hot, I had 90 degree air entering the radiator today with the a/c on and it was running on the stat at 180 degrees.
Here is a datalog so you see it coolant pressure is in red, now this is going down the highway.
I would have never noticed this unless I would have been logging coolant pressure with my ecu. I am doing another project for a daily driver and it will be definitely setup as a surge tank.
So at some point this summer I will be installing a surge tank. So what do you guys think about putting the surge tank just in one of the heater ports on the water pump.
Pressure should hold steady once it reaches the cap pressure. The pressure in the cooling system drops off to zero and I have confirmed this with the radiator hoses being soft.
All I know is when I put my ly6 in my 83 cutlass
Temp would go up and down with heater off. I installed a 4 way mixer valve off a newer suburban that loops the heater hoses when heat is off instead of blocking flow like original. Problem went away . Your temps will be more stable with flow to the back of the thermostat.
Pressure should hold steady once it reaches the cap pressure. The pressure in the cooling system drops off to zero and I have confirmed this with the radiator hoses being soft.
So your complaint is cooling system is not holding pressure while coolant temp is maintained? Did you pressure test cooling system with cap in place to see what pressure does or where it's leaking?
Pressure should hold steady once it reaches the cap pressure. The pressure in the cooling system drops off to zero and I have confirmed this with the radiator hoses being soft.
The only time it would ever reach cap pressure....is if there is a problem and it has blown water out. Under normal use, it should never see cap pressure.
but if you have the sensor installed in a sensible location, and pressure is actually dropping to zero, clearly you have a leak somewhere.
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