Coolant Swirl Pot Questions
07-14-21, 06:30 PM
#1
Full Member
Thread Starter
Coolant Swirl Pot Questions
I’m having someone who’s doing some aluminum welding weld me up a coolant swirl pot for my car. I am still fairly new to racing tech and what not so I have a few questions about them.
1. Where in the coolant path is the swirl pot ran is it within the main radiator lines or put in some other way? Also I’m running an EWP for reference.
2. I’m running -20 AN radiator lines so if it is inline should i keep the same size or would reducing it not hurt? I’m just wondering for size of the pot itself being too long for the distance between the fittings.
3. I’ve read about people doing overflow reservoirs with this which I would assume would work as normal. Does this work as it normal would with just a small nipple off of the swirl pot just below the cap to a reservoir that I assume would be higher than the swirl pot?
4. I also have a place for a radiator cap on my radiator with an overflow nipple on it as well. should I run these like normal and just have the radiator overflow to the overflow reservoir or should that also go into the swirl pot? And should the radiator cap be normal or be a dummy cap or should it be blocked off all together?
5. Sizing? I don’t know what to do for sizing since it seems like from what i’ve read you want your whole pot to be above your highest point but I also don’t want a huge swirl pot taking up a bunch of room since there already isn’t an insane amount of room in the first gens.
6. Location. I would assume I want it as close to the motor right or inlet of where I want the coolant to come from which in my case would be a plate for the outlet of my motor that has 2 AN fittings coming off of it. Or is this again something where it should change due to having an EWP?
6. Or is there a way of implementing this into my system in a completely different way that I haven’t even come close to mentioning? I’m open to ideas and suggestions.
Any information would be very helpful if I’m completely missing something or you just feel like you should add something to help me figure stuff out.
For reference if this helps at all I’m driving an SA22C with a half bridge 12a. A 27.5x19x1.5 dual pass cross flow radiator with -20 AN inlet/outlet lines that’s slanted but the cap area should still be above the motor slightly. I’m running the Franklin Performance EWP adaptor plate with two -20 AN fittings with a Davies Craig ewp115(haven’t bought yet but will soon but may change to a different model if necessary). Before anyone says anything yes I do realized this is an overbuilt system for my little 12a, but one I enjoy the build too much and two this is going to be a drift car and I live in Virginia and it gets pretty hot in the summers and my local track runs hot laps of 30+ minutes so I want to be able to thrash through all of those 30 minutes and not have to pull off every lap to let the car cool down. But yes it’s overbuilt
1. Where in the coolant path is the swirl pot ran is it within the main radiator lines or put in some other way? Also I’m running an EWP for reference.
2. I’m running -20 AN radiator lines so if it is inline should i keep the same size or would reducing it not hurt? I’m just wondering for size of the pot itself being too long for the distance between the fittings.
3. I’ve read about people doing overflow reservoirs with this which I would assume would work as normal. Does this work as it normal would with just a small nipple off of the swirl pot just below the cap to a reservoir that I assume would be higher than the swirl pot?
4. I also have a place for a radiator cap on my radiator with an overflow nipple on it as well. should I run these like normal and just have the radiator overflow to the overflow reservoir or should that also go into the swirl pot? And should the radiator cap be normal or be a dummy cap or should it be blocked off all together?
5. Sizing? I don’t know what to do for sizing since it seems like from what i’ve read you want your whole pot to be above your highest point but I also don’t want a huge swirl pot taking up a bunch of room since there already isn’t an insane amount of room in the first gens.
6. Location. I would assume I want it as close to the motor right or inlet of where I want the coolant to come from which in my case would be a plate for the outlet of my motor that has 2 AN fittings coming off of it. Or is this again something where it should change due to having an EWP?
6. Or is there a way of implementing this into my system in a completely different way that I haven’t even come close to mentioning? I’m open to ideas and suggestions.
Any information would be very helpful if I’m completely missing something or you just feel like you should add something to help me figure stuff out.
For reference if this helps at all I’m driving an SA22C with a half bridge 12a. A 27.5x19x1.5 dual pass cross flow radiator with -20 AN inlet/outlet lines that’s slanted but the cap area should still be above the motor slightly. I’m running the Franklin Performance EWP adaptor plate with two -20 AN fittings with a Davies Craig ewp115(haven’t bought yet but will soon but may change to a different model if necessary). Before anyone says anything yes I do realized this is an overbuilt system for my little 12a, but one I enjoy the build too much and two this is going to be a drift car and I live in Virginia and it gets pretty hot in the summers and my local track runs hot laps of 30+ minutes so I want to be able to thrash through all of those 30 minutes and not have to pull off every lap to let the car cool down. But yes it’s overbuilt
07-15-21, 08:23 AM
#2
Moderator
iTrader: (3)
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: https://www2.mazda.com/en/100th/
Posts: 30,844
Received 2,606 Likes
on
1,849 Posts
the FD, Rx8, VW's have the coolant tank going from a hose at the bottom to the bottom of the tank and then a hose from near the top, radiator cap goes on the tank and the overflow works like normal 
location doesn't matter although you want it up high (its job is to bleed air out). the Rx8 is up front the VW's are usually in the back. its also fine to keep the cap on the radiator
you'd get better search results if you just called it a coolant tank, and its actually tough to beat the VW one, its so cheap and it has a level sensor in it
location doesn't matter although you want it up high (its job is to bleed air out). the Rx8 is up front the VW's are usually in the back. its also fine to keep the cap on the radiator
you'd get better search results if you just called it a coolant tank, and its actually tough to beat the VW one, its so cheap and it has a level sensor in it
07-15-21, 11:53 AM
#3
Full Member
Thread Starter
the FD, Rx8, VW's have the coolant tank going from a hose at the bottom to the bottom of the tank and then a hose from near the top, radiator cap goes on the tank and the overflow works like normal
location doesn't matter although you want it up high (its job is to bleed air out). the Rx8 is up front the VW's are usually in the back. its also fine to keep the cap on the radiator
you'd get better search results if you just called it a coolant tank, and its actually tough to beat the VW one, its so cheap and it has a level sensor in it
location doesn't matter although you want it up high (its job is to bleed air out). the Rx8 is up front the VW's are usually in the back. its also fine to keep the cap on the radiator
you'd get better search results if you just called it a coolant tank, and its actually tough to beat the VW one, its so cheap and it has a level sensor in it
07-15-21, 12:22 PM
#4
I thought these kinds of things were used when the radiator was lower than the engine? I had never heard of a swirl pot for cooling systems but google returned some hits for both ones that are already made and some formula car forums were these are common....like Formula Ford/F, etc. Which makes sense because the radiators on those cars are either up front in the nose of the car or divided between the side pods. Apparently getting the air out formula car cooling systems in an issue.
Google is your friend for finding what you want
Anyway, be interesting to see if this has an impact on your car's cooling system performance.
Google is your friend for finding what you want
Anyway, be interesting to see if this has an impact on your car's cooling system performance.
07-16-21, 08:22 AM
#5
Moderator
iTrader: (3)
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: https://www2.mazda.com/en/100th/
Posts: 30,844
Received 2,606 Likes
on
1,849 Posts
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
kidS4
2nd Generation Specific (1986-1992)
24
12-05-13 11:29 AM