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1979 280zx, Overflow Tank Missing? Strange Question


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Hey, im just beginning to restore my car and right away i saw that the tube going from the neck of the radiator to the overflow thank was attached to nothing. In my haynes manual it shows the rad tank to the right front of the engine, mines missing? but their is no mounting place and no unhooked wiring. can someone please help me out? i dunno whats going on.

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Cars did run without overflow tanks for years, but they are a good thing to have, especially if the cooling system was designed to use one.

 

Without a puke tank the first time an engine comes up to temperature (with a full cooling system) some coolant will be dumped on the ground. This is due to thermal expansion- stuff gets bigger/takes up more space when hot. When the engine cools off, air will be drawn back into the system. Thus, by the time the engine is cold, the radiator will no longer be full. That is the way they ran in the old days: If a person took the cap off the radiator (only done with the system cool to avoid scalding/burns) the coolant level would be down an inch or so.

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An overflow tank allows coolant rather than air to be drawn back into the system; this helps minimize coolant system corrosion, and became even more important with the advent of side flow radiators. (A side flow without an overflow tank can have the top few tubes emptied/filled with air due to normal heat cycling).

 

Enjoy your project!

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Since they are selling it, it should. Looks just like what I found at Kragens for my old Toyota pickup. (I've seen two different tanks that look almost exactly the same... the one that I prefer has a screw on lid, and the other lid snaps on). The kit I bought came with a new radiator cap of the proper pressure rating.

 

Some vehicles have oddly shaped tanks due to lack of room under the hood.

If a tank fits, it works (naturally a great big engine/cooling system needs a larger overflow tank than a tiny engine).

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