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Using a variety of easily available hose fittings, a four corner setup can even look nice. The rears have ninety degree fittings, the fronts are tees and the two sides come together in a Y-block.
Alright, question for you
How do you know that coolant is actually flowing through those hoses over the valve covers
The cooling system is under constant pressure, however air pockets stop coolant flow. Flow from water movement in a sealed system ceases in an air pocket at a high point.
is high pointing the back cylinder heads coolant pipe above the valve covers more efficient than having constant coolant flow without air pockets.
I've seen a few setups with a Schrader valve, which is really the only way to relieve the air out of the system, but yours doesn't seem to have one.
If you pull off the hose from the heads where it returns to at the radiator, you'll see it's a pretty good stream of coolant that gets pumped through. It's not static, it's under some pressure from the water pump.
I've had good luck running the engine with the nose of the car jacked up. Easy for me, I have a sloped driveway.
I start the engine with the radiator cap off and it topped off with coolant. When it gets hot enough to open the thermostat, the level in the radiator drops and you can see the coolant flowing through. Top it off and cap it.
On the other hand, my 5.3 truck is a disaster, they're very difficult to get the air out.
Yeah, I know what you mean, but you would need to disconnect the hose after the thermostat opens with a tall funnel in the radiator too push air out of both sides of the hose to completely eliminate the air pocket. Doing it blindly there is no way to verify the system is completely bled.
I've never had problems with temperatures using your method, just trying to point out a design flaw with using a rear coolant cross over setup
I get why people are trying to route the cross overs, and being thorough about it, but it's still not any more effecient with all of those hoses when you are just high pointing the air in the system in the lines.
I guess my main point is that there is no way to verify when the system is completely bled and free of air in an fbody without a Schrader valve on both cross overs above the valve covers or clear tubing.
Really the main flaw is the resevoir being mounted below the radiator on an fbody.
Again I'm not saying there's any problems with a rear cross over custom setup, I am however trying to point out a flaw, and that a custom setup isn't any more effecient than a rear block off
When I run my water pump I can see full streams of water running through all 4 steam vent lines. My car is modified quite a bit but it was interesting to see the amount of fluid that flows through those 4 lines. I'll take a vid later and post it.
The coolant does not flow through my throttle body and I installed a surge tank on one of the heads to act as an overflow but also raises the high point of the system. I made a bracket to mount the tank as high as it would go and still shut the hood.
When I run my water pump I can see full streams of water running through all 4 steam vent lines. My car is modified quite a bit but it was interesting to see the amount of fluid that flows through those 4 lines. I'll take a vid later and post it.
The coolant does not flow through my throttle body and I installed a surge tank on one of the heads to act as an overflow but also raises the high point of the system. I made a bracket to mount the tank as high as it would go and still shut the hood.
Yours I have no doubt is removing the air pockets with the remote resevoir mounted high like that.
I can't really see the tube routing, does the cross over feed directly to the resevoir or does it go to the radiator then then your remote resevoir.
Yeah its pretty interesting to see the actual coolant flow when it's hot, you can pretty much see the heat in the coolant moving through the line. With the clear tubing the hot coolant from the head flows faster through the lines and if you look closely you can see the hot coolant moving past the cold coolant when the thermostat opens
Also, never thought of this before, but with an electric water pump do you even need a thermostat, or is it activated by a temperature switch. Thinking out loud you could typically just run a jumper from the fan switch to activate the waterpump. So the waterpump would only activate at the trigger temp set by the ecu for the fans to activate at a certain temp. (I can't tell if you have an electric water pump, but seeing your vacuum pump I'd assume you have the project set to kill and have an electric water pump)
Originally Posted by 98_WS6_M6
I decided to run 4 steam vent ports. Another member on here gave me the idea when his buddy's boosted car kept overheating. He was able to fix the issue permanently by venting all 4 steam vents to an overflow tank I installed on the head. I made my own kit but this looks real similar to what I bought.
Yours I have no doubt is removing the air pockets with the remote resevoir mounted high like that.
I can't really see the tube routing, does the cross over feed directly to the resevoir or does it go to the radiator then then your remote resevoir.
Yeah its pretty interesting to see the actual coolant flow when it's hot, you can pretty much see the heat in the coolant moving through the line. With the clear tubing the hot coolant from the head flows faster through the lines and if you look closely you can see the hot coolant moving past the cold coolant when the thermostat opens
Also, never thought of this before, but with an electric water pump do you even need a thermostat, or is it activated by a temperature switch. Thinking out loud you could typically just run a jumper from the fan switch to activate the waterpump. So the waterpump would only activate at the trigger temp set by the ecu for the fans to activate at a certain temp. (I can't tell if you have an electric water pump, but seeing your vacuum pump I'd assume you have the project set to kill and have an electric water pump)
You need the pump to stay running. The cooling system depends on pressure to help raise the water boiling point. Also, steam itself is an insulator compared to water. If you get a steam barrier at the metal surfaces, cooling performance drops dramatically.
If you pull off the hose from the heads where it returns to at the radiator, you'll see it's a pretty good stream of coolant that gets pumped through. It's not static, it's under some pressure from the water pump.
Originally Posted by 98_WS6_M6
When I run my water pump I can see full streams of water running through all 4 steam vent lines. My car is modified quite a bit but it was interesting to see the amount of fluid that flows through those 4 lines.
Originally Posted by chrysler kid
I guess my main point is that there is no way to verify when the system is completely bled and free of air in an fbody without a Schrader valve on both cross overs above the valve covers or clear tubing.
As the corner vents are on the pressure side of the system and coolant is forced through them, I don't see the need for Schrader valves to bleed with.
Originally Posted by chrysler kid
Also, never thought of this before, but with an electric water pump do you even need a thermostat, or is it activated by a temperature switch.
The water pump needs to run while the engine is running. The thermostat controls the flow rate as the temperature calls for it.
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