The stupid cooling bottle got a crack in it, so instead of replacing it i deleted it....without replacing the radiator.




Kragen Reservoir kit:


Its basically just copper pipe soldered together. Its been like this for about a month and no problems so far. If anyone does this dont forget to put a lip on the ends of the inlet and outlet.

 

Very nice! Different take on an old idea. I like it!

 

thats freakin awesome you def just converted it to an open cooling system, thats great i been on here a while and have never seen it done like that

 

slick

 

I'd like very much to see the steps you went through to do that. And what parts you got for it. I'm interested in doing this with mine.

 

Looks good!

I put an inline cap kit on my upper hose, connected the hoses going to the purge tank and made the old purge tank the overflow tank.

I think yours is better for longevity.

 

Thanks for all the compliments, although i have to give all the credit to my dad because he actually thought of it and made it. The idea came up when the bottle cracked, and having just put in that perfectly good 3 row radiator that we found at the junkyard, and not wanting to tear into it again, or to let that perfect 3 row go to waste, we wanted to make it a normal system, but the easiest way possible. my dad had the idea to take a radiator spout from a junkyard car and soldier copper pipe to connect the inlet and outlet together, so it flowed while having a place to pour the coolant in. Sorry, i dont have pics of making it, and yes i know.....
but anyways, after the copper piping was fabbed, next thing was the reservoir. the engine compartment is cluttered as it is, so finding a place to put it was difficult. we decided to put it next to the air box since there was a nice sized cubby hole there, but we couldnt find any sort of container that would fit. well my dad went to kragen, and came home with a handy reservoir kit that i didnt even know they made oh and he also got some fuel line that served as the return line from the spout to the reservoir.

So after connecting the return line, and using the line the kit had as a breather line, it was time for a test drive.

At first everything was working fine, until we were almost home and noticed the temperature was rising, fast!

parked it in the driveway, shut it off and popped the hood, only to find that the top hose connected to the copper piping (the inlet) had come off and coolant was being poured everywhere

turns out it needed a lip to keep the line from coming off, so my dad soldiered one on, and its been working great ever since!


so theres the story of it, i know i didnt include a list of parts used to make the connector, but i'll post a list of the parts used and pics when we make another one.

 

I thought about putting a T with a cap opening in the upper hose but needed a new radiator anyway.
That bottle should be put on the worst idea page somewhere.
clint

 

Speaking of which.. mine has a leak to I need to replace it!

 

Is that on your 94 in your bio? I thought 92 or so they went away with them? When I did my sister's Jeep about 8 years ago I got a radiator from what I thought was a 92 and it had the cap.
In a related topic, the radiator I put in my 90 the other week has a metal rod running vertically on each side. The fan clutch rubs against it when I give it gas. I either need to move the radiator forward somehow or cut out the metal rod. Would removing the rod hurt anything?
clint

 

Thats pretty good mine had the same problem. what i did was replace the plastic bottle with a steel box that has the rad cap on it. I KNOW THIS IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT PICS but thats what i did im trying to get the pics on right now.