No pressure in cooling system

[mike diesel]

Since building my compounds I obviously had to switch to a different coolant bottle so I ordered this Canton one. It accepts "standard" radiator caps. So i went to oreilly's to snag a cap for it and asked for a "standard" cap and the guy craps his pants saying he has 10,000 different rad caps back there and has no idea what a standard cap is. So i tell him to get me a cap for an '89 s10 and it works perfcet....I guess.

Only issue I see is that now I cant build any pressure in the cooling system. If you squeeze the upper rad hose you can hear the air in the overflow bottle blow out from where the coolant would normally spray from in excess of 16psi. So i take the cap back and exchange it for a new one. Same thing...

Truck operates at normal temps just fine and the heater works perfect as well so it is obviously circulating coolant. Even after beatong the truck for a good bit, there is zero pressure in the system. Will not being able to build pressure in the cooling system cause me any issues?

 

[Chevy1925]

the cap you have is not letting the seal that on that spring hit the inner lip of the coolant bottle or if it is, it is not sealing. i would not drive on it with no pressure in the system. while the coolant mixed with your water helps keep boiling point much higher, it does nothing for the air and expanding water. the pressure will help keep steam bubbles to a minimum and cavitation chances much lower.

 

[OregonDMAX]

Can't believe that didn't come with a cap... Get what you pay for I guess.

 

[mike diesel]

the cap you have is not letting the seal that on that spring hit the inner lip of the coolant bottle or if it is, it is not sealing. i would not drive on it with no pressure in the system. while the coolant mixed with your water helps keep boiling point much higher, it does nothing for the air and expanding water. the pressure will help keep steam bubbles to a minimum and cavitation chances much lower.

These are all good points i didn't think about. I'm wondering if the rad cap flange was machined wrong or simply if it's just a cheap piece of junk. The bottle was $105 so I figured it would be a good unit. I will have to give Canton a call and see what they recommend for a cap.

 

[mike diesel]

Just called Canton and told him about the issue. Sounds like they were aware already and he had an answer before i even finished telling him what was going on. He said the Stant 81-016 is a "known" cap that works. Guess I'll go snag one of those today.

 

[56taskforce]

Hope that works for you this is an awesome build. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the post glad to see it is something simple...

 

[RPM Motorsports]

Good info, I have the same can on the Nova.

 

[mike diesel]

Unfortunately it doesn't look like this is a standard stocked cap at most auto parts stores. I'm on the hunt right now locally to see if I can find one or if i can find a cap that will work. If i can't find one in the next hour or so, I'll just order one.

 

[Chevy1925]

amazon might. its early enough you might be able to find one with same day shipping lol.

EDIT: your part number comes back as a Canton cap, not a stant. might be why you cant find it. amazon came up with nothing as well

 

[gmduramax]

JB weld? :rofl:

 

[mike diesel]

No luck locally. Ordered one from summit for $15 shipped.

 

[Awenta]

Why wouldn't they include a cap? Seems like such a hassle.

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[mike diesel]

New canton rad cap just showed up. And what do you know....made no difference. Still unable to build pressure. If i rip the gasket off the other cap and double stack them...would that work?

 

[mike diesel]

So in comparing to my s10 cooling system that uses the same style cap, I would need to fill this overflow bottle to the brim, the expanding coolant closes the little valve on the cap then allowing it to build pressure. If you leave the coolant bottle half full so the coolant can expand a little, the valve on the cap never gets pushed shut and it will never build pressure. I am not sure what to do here. Should I fill the coolant bottle totally full?

 

[mike diesel]

So i filled the bottle almost to the brim. This should give the coolant just enough room to expand and seal the valve allowing pressure to build.

looks like I'm the retard here not understanding how this system works. Atleast I have a spare rad cap for either my dmax or s10

 

[PACougar]

First person ever to complain about not having pressure in the coolant system on a DMAX:roflmao:

 

[mike diesel]

Alright well she builds pressure good now. I filled it a little too full so it relieved itself of the excess. And of course now that it has pressure I can see the lower fitting on the bottle is leaking. I'll pull it apart tomorrow and fix it up.

 

[Awenta]

First person ever to complain about not having pressure in the coolant system on a DMAX

Haha! I believe so!

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[jlawles2]

I would be worried that since it took 100% full to make it build pressure, once the system cools off and pulls air back into the overflow, it will not reseal.

Do you have a separate expansion tank?

 

[RHallenbeck]

Hold the cap and see if the recovery pintle is spring loaded to pull up against the lower sealing rubber gasket or if it hangs loose. The Stant caps generally are sping loaded up against the gasket and will build pressure immediately. See how the lower disk just hangs down, thus not allowing pressure to build. You want one with it spring loaded up against the rubber.