I went to check my coolant level for first time since filling it up last fall and It appears my coolant overflow reservoir has been disconnected. I see two hoses coming from the backside of the radiator. One has a metal "straw" with a 45 degree bend and was just hanging loose. It would reach the tank but there isn't an obvious way that it connects to the nipple on the bottom of the tank. Based on the grime that is caked on it, it has been this way for quite a while.
The other hose is firmly secured to the bottom of the radiator pointing towards the ground and looks like an intentional drain.
Can anyone confirm that the first hose needs to be reconnected to the bottom of the coolant tank? I imagine that as the coolant has been heating up, it has been overflowing to the ground until it reaches a point where it no longer overflows. I watch my coolant temps like a hawk and have never seen it Get even close to too hot But then again, it has a monster direct drive fan helping it cool the little engine.
It should be hooked up and unless the hose is in good shape, I would replace the hose.
Ok so I took the bed out and started crawling around in the engine bay and cannot for the life of me figure out where that hose goes. I didn't realize it, but it's not two hoses, it's both ends of the same hose. So that metal "straw" pictured above appears to have been inserted into something to allow it to drain out.
That said, I can see absolutely nowhere that it might go in the radiator and I checked all sides/corners/edges. It's just dangling there in the engine bay and it makes me wonder if at some point the coach had a new radiator/configuration installed. According to my Cat 3208 service manual, there are three cooling configurations available for this generation 3208 and only one used an overflow reservoir and the overflow drain pictured at the top of the radiator in that configuration doesn't exist on mine.
So at this point I have scoured the engine and don't see a way to hook up that reservoir and am running out of time. Should I just fill the radiator up with coolant from the top and just do so every time as a step in the pre-flight routine since there isn't a reservoir I can view?
Alright, once again Craneman got me squared away with the help of a few extra pictures. No recapture/reservoir system on this radiator. Given that I do see a disconnected reservoir I suspect my radiator isn't original. I'm going to get a new pressure cap for this thing, fill it up to the glass bubble sight, and call it a day. Just need to figure out what pressure cap I need (this one isn't marked)
13# works with a closed system . 9 is fine if you have a tank . I added a tank, and the coolant is drawn in , but the system loses pressure a tiny bit.
You may have a recovery, overflow tube at the neck. The rad will have a 2 step sealing cap.
As Mike said it has an overflow system it is at the rad cap. Without an overflow system
the radiator is not filled to the top as there needs to be enough room at the top of the radiator for
coolant expansion.
Ok The mystery has been solved thanks to that picture that Mike posted. once I knew where to look It all made sense and I found where the "straw" busted off the neck
Well I'm hoping a little solder and jb weld will do the trick. If not oh well, not a huge deal. Thanks again for the help guys
Correct cap for coolant recovery looks like the diagram below:
Just an idea but can you take that tube out and put a small flare on it before using JB weld to attach it back over the stub?
jk
On our 84 ORED there was a leak where the cap adapter was soldered to the pipe. I didn't want to take a chance of trying to resolder it and causing more damage. I cut the pipe on the straight pipe coming out of the radiator. I then was able to solder it successfully. I then used a piece of radiator hose to put it back together and no problem afterwards. That was over 20 years ago and it is still like that today.
I would have ideally done something a little bit cleaner, but that job came at the end Of an already long day and it just needed to get done. The JB weld is mostly to make it airtight (hopefully) But it also added quite a bit of reinforcement.
We leave bright an early in the morning for 3 months and I once again squeezed across the finish line just in the nick of time with all my projects.
Thankfully, most of the projects were ones I was aware of when I bought the coach so with a bit of luck next spring won't be quite as crazy. All the routine and preventative maintenance is up-to-date and all the deficiencies I was aware of are sorted out. Now it's just whatever I break moving forward. And maybe a mini split and a bathroom model.
Safe travels Elliott. We are leaving Sunday morning for a month out and about...enjoy.