Or just plug it and drill into the bottom. If the material is too thin you can have bung welded on dirt cheap or do the "T" trick with the bottom sight glass fitting.

 

This is really good info!!!

 

This looks like the stock design. Sorry for the noob questions, but I'm trying to learn something here. So, where exactly does this design drain to? The stock recovery tank doesn't have a drain.

It seems the stock tank is more of a resivor, but it also recovers. I'm a bit confused.

 

it drains to a bucket when you want to clean it out (when you change your coolant)

 

while this might not be the ideal setup,, for $50 it would be worth buying and at least messing around with

 

The stock tank is a recovery tank. The recovery tank works to store the excess coolant as it is expelled from the cooling system via pressure from the expansion of heating it. When the coolant cools it contracts and pulls the coolant back into the system. The stock piece IIRC has a cap that has a siphon tube going down to the bottom. That same cap also has a hose that just sorta falls off to the side, that is the vent/overflow (I don't like saying overflow becuase it's confusing enough with 3+ different types of tanks) If you were to fill the cooling system to the max, fill the recovery tank to the max and start the engine, as the coolant warms it's going to get pushed right through the vent/overflow tube. Alot of times people will have a small pin hole leak, a bad cap seal, or the barbs are leaking a little. What happens is as the coolant cools it pulls in outside air from these incredibly small places that when hot sometimes expand and seal not leaking coolant. Someone checks the recovery tank and it is full, but they crack the radiator cap and it's low. Naturally they add coolant to the radiator and now the system has slightly more coolant than it did yesterday. This cycle continues until the system is overfilled and spitting coolant on the ground through the vent.

Yes that WR thing could be mad to function properly VERY easy. The only two concerns for a recovery tank to work properly is a vent, and the source from the pressure cap must always be in coolant. Whether this is done with a siphon tube or by plumbing it into the bottom of the can it will work just fine.
If the tank isn't vented your cooling system will be under too much pressure
If the source from the cap isn't in the coolant at all time, you run the risk of pulling air back into the system

FWIW - my vent runs along the framrail and exits where the AC drain was No coolant on hot turbo's for me.

Exactely. There is no drain on the stock recovery tank. Come to think of it, I've never seen a stock recovery tank wil a drain.

 

So would the ideal setup be a recovery tank or an air seperator tank?

 

I think air separator so you can reduce the likelihood of overheating/damage due to air in the cooling system.
FEED's $600+ AST for the FD:
http://www.neweraparts.com/Default.a...D=183&tabid=54

 

$600 I'll sell you mine for $400 and you won't need to make your own lines

 

yeah, it's the same thing you're making but MORE expensive cuz it says "Fujita Engineering"

 

Either way you are going to need a recovery tank. Even with the expansion tank the coolant is going to get pushed past the pressure cap and needs a place to go. It has to go into a recovery tank otherwise it will be lost. I've heard of problems with some guys always getting air pockets in thier cooling systems. If you are one of those guys I would suggest using an expansion tank BUT you will still need a recovery tank. If you don't get pockets, don't bother and the stock system is fine.

Having said that an expansion tank will always be better than NOT having one. It's a little extra plumbing but at the end of the day it performs a very good function. If I were doing my FC over with an FC waterpump housing I would think very hard about where to put one, and just do it. But since I'm using the FD housing and the FD had one from the factory, the decision was a wee bit easier.

 

So if I were to rebiuld a T2 engine or what not, it would be ideal to use and FD waterpump housing instead of the stock one because FD's already have a stock ast, right? I learn something new everyday.

Now what about the oil. I've seen some products just like this, but made for the oil system. What's that about, or am I just mistaken?

 

You don't need to use the FD waterpump & housing and if you do I believe you will loose the AC & PS. I'm saying I did becuase the water outlets/inlets were in a betterplace. If you modified the t-stat housing you could pull a line off of that really easily to plumb into an expansion tank. Hell you could even keep the stock recovery tank if you wanted.

FD's HAD the AST which was why I didn't even think about whether or not I wanted one. But if I were to us an FC waterpump housing, I would probably modify it to accomdate an expansion tank.