Coolant expansion tank Version 2

17 Feb 2006 Coolant expansion tank Version 2

I decided to check the junkyard again to see if I can find a better expansion tank there. I found what I think will be a good one. It came from a Renault van, and it was some kind of an oil reservoir, but I don’t really know what for. Perhaps you can tell me!

Closer view of the tank in its native habitat.

Here are the parts I picked up. Unfortunately the boss was at the junkyard, so he charged me a lot. CHF 20, which is about 15 USD. I was hoping to get it for CHF 10.

The cap is a zero pressure cap. There was some kind of filter inside there, but I took it out.

Here is the bracket and the backing plate that I fabricated out of 3/4″x3/4″ angle, 1 1/4″x1″ angle, and a bit of 0.032″ sheet. Notice the lightening holes. Must build it light…must built it light…

The plastic bracket bolted onto the aluminum bracket. I didn’t think it would be strong enough but I put my 17AH Panasonic battery on there, and it held fine.

Shot of the backing plate. Still have the protective plastic on there. I’ll take all these firewall parts down to get anodized when I’m finished with it all.

A shot from the right side to show the relationship to the intercooler.

Here’s a shot from the left with the intercooler off.

I have a stong feeling this will be a temporary solution, even though I really like it. I’ve ordered a new aluminum tank from Canton Racing which is about the same size. The main problem with this tank is that there is no easy place to put in a coolant level sensor. With the canton racing tank, I’ll have a NPT bung welded on there. Lack of coolant in this aircraft could be bad, and it is hard to detect lack of coolant from the temperature sensor. It really needs to be measured.