Coolant and Washer Bottle Level Alarm Mod

[Scamper]

My understanding is that it's both a reservoir and an overflow tank. And I believe your assumption is correct.

As the coolant expands, it is forced into the overflow tank. As it cools (after the engine is shut off) it is sucked back into the radiator. I would have to go back and read but I am pretty sure on both of Doug's trucks (97=cracked head & 93=HG failed) he initially noticed the coolant resevoir was low.

Simon,
Maybe I can talk Photoman into doing a mod to make the sensor into a bubble detector?

-B-

I think the issue may be that it's an expansion tank. The radiator cap allows the system to be pressurized, and as the coolant expands, any excess will be driven into the tank. However, since the presence of any coolant in the system will allow it to maintain pressure while hot, there may well be no "retrieval" from the expansion tank, and so the level in the tank would not drop until the system cools down, at which point there is contraction and a vaccum is created. Under these conditions, I can understand why Simon would not have detected the low coolant situation.

That said, if your truck were loosing coolant slowly, then the sensor would indicate at startup if you were low so long as sufficient time had passed to allow adequate cooling. That would be the time to catch it.

 

[Photoman]

Quote from Semlin:

Bill, i'd like to hear more about the block cracking. one detail omitted from the story above is the nasty clattering i heard when i first turned it over after putting more fluid in. I believe it was a blown and broken h/g ring protruding into the cylinder impacting on the cylinder as I have nice little gouge in the cylinder when i opened it up but I am not sure. did you crack your block from loss of coolant??

There were no symptoms on mine other than the loss of coolant. I left for a trip and made it to Washington from the East coast. Each morning I was adding a quart or more of anti-freeze and noticed it weeping at an expansion plug on the DS. The cruiser only had 29k miles on it, so I took it to a dealer north of Seattle. First they replaced the expansion plug and the leak did not stop. So I had to cool my heels for a week while they replaced the block. I looked at the old block and could see a small crack in the casting at the bottom of the expansion plug hole. I attribute the crack to me having to run the cruiser at high RPM’s for sustained periods. The thing was so heavy, I was in second gear some times floored for tens minutes to get up some of the hills on the interstates. The engine would rhythmically shutter. When I got back I talked to TRD and the superchargers were about to come out so I got one and installed it. The dealer did not know the cause of the crack and what I said is just a guess.

Bill

 

[alaskacruiser]

Cool mod.Speaking of a low coolant reservoir, this recently happened to me as some of my lower heater hoses started slowly leaking. I noticed my digital temp guage readings started climbing from the normal 190 to around 214 and immediately popped the hood to find an empty coolant reservoir and my rad approx. 2 gallons low. Considering my temp guage is about 8-10F > OBD, I was pretty safe.

 

[boydmick]

Another thing to consider:

If you have a leak in your cooling system, as the system cools it may not draw coolant back into the system from the overflow bottle.

Air can enter the system through the leak, leaving your overflow level unchanged.

Still a cool mod!

Boyd

 

[alia176]

You know, we *could* use the dirty air filter indicator in the dash for the "coolant low level" indicator! It's the one to the right of the front and rear diff locked indicators. I did put a bulb in that spot when I added the diff locked bulbs. All you gotta do is switch GND and you're all set!

Just a thought!

Ali

 

[NLXTACY]

Resurrecting this thread. Just received the ELF960 in the mail today. So now looking back, anything that you guys would have done differently now that you have been running it for a couple of years? Also, where did you mount the ELK and did you enclose it in a kit box or something? I have to remove the instrument cluster anyway so I was going to wire up a red LED "inside" the instrument cluster just under the temp gauge.

Joey

 

[Beowulf]

Other than the Mr Wizard factor, the ELK timer circuit is not needed. I have been running "un-timed" for about 2 years. No flickering light. No intermittent light. I would not do anything differently and I would do the mod again.

I test it about every 6 months (due for another soon) and the low coolant level detector still works fine.

-B-

 

[OGBeno]

Please tell me that you guys are not actually putting coolant overflow and washer bottle height sensors?

Sorry. Nothing against Bill or anyone that might have already done these "modifications" but seriously, can't ya just get out of your air conditioned rig, pop the hood and look at both containers?



Just sayin'.

 

[NLXTACY]

Beno...in a word...TOTALLY!!!

I'mm looking to automate everything so that I don't have to open the hood again. Hmm, I COULD also strap a jug of antifreeze to the overflow tank with a pump so that when the light goes on, so does the pump. Light goes off, so does pump. Viola! Always have enough coolant

Ok I'm not going to do that...but thought about it.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

I can see it beneficial is traveling down the highway for a long period of time. You spring a "slow" leak and eventually lose fluid. Perhaps this would notify you of the problem before the truck loses all fluid and potentially overheats?

 

[NLXTACY]

This is the only reason I am installing this. We went through one engine already when my wife saw the light but didnt think much of it other than the steam. Turns out we had a piece of metal on the highway pierce the radiator. So $5k later I don't want to go through it again. Having the temp mod helps greatly along with the lesson learned on my wife's end.

 

[john_eckels]

This is the only reason I am installing this. We went through one engine already when my wife saw the light but didnt think much of it other than the steam. Turns out we had a piece of metal on the highway pierce the radiator. So $5k later I don't want to go through it again. Having the temp mod helps greatly along with the lesson learned on my wife's end.

I am not sure this will help you while driving down the road. I think (someone please correct me if I am wrong) the only time the radiator draws from the overflow is when the system is cooling down.

 

[Beowulf]

Please tell me that you guys are not actually putting coolant overflow and washer bottle height sensors?

Coolant overflow, yes. Windshield washer no... (not yet anyway.)

You don't have anyone else driving your truck. I have to make the truck "robust" and sometimes that means idiot lights for the other drivers.

My after market temp gauge has a buzzer and a flashing red light when the temps hit the preset max. Same with the coolant level sensor... it will illuminate an orange light right in the temp gauge pod. If Ross is driving he might not know what temp is normal but he will know to stop the vehicle when all the lights start flashing at him.

It was a fun mod after Bill did all the work to figure out how to do it.

I mentioned it one other time... maybe a prior post in this thread. IdahoDoug had 2 vehicles with failed head gaskets. IIRC, his first indication on BOTH of them was a low coolant level. He filled it and a few days later it was low again. He was able to do the HG job on his schedule in his garage using his tools. With my luck, it would be in Podunk, Texas in some jack-legged mechanic's run-down garage while I shelled out the $$$ to get if fixed on his schedule. FYI, this is exactly what happened to me in ~1975 but it was in some small town just south of Columbia, Louisiana and it was a '71 Ford that lost a radiator hose, dumped all the coolant, blew the HG, and warped both heads. Whole famdamily in the car driving back to Houston on a Sunday night. Bad memories of that fiasco.

I'll take all the extra protection I can get.

-B-

 

[NLXTACY]

John you are correct BUT lets say I stop for food. Thats at least a 30 min stop and plenty of time to allow cool down. If there is a problem I would know as soon as we got up to temp again.

 

[reffug]

Sorry. Nothing against Bill or anyone that might have already done these "modifications" but seriously, can't ya just get out of your air conditioned rig, pop the hood and look at both containers?

were OLD and LAZY.

someday you'll be there too.

 

[NLXTACY]

Ok SO! As I was getting all of my stuff together to put this kit to good use, I noticed that my truck was running on the hot side. Now its 92º today in the San Fernando Valley but still, shouldnt be climbing like that. Well when I stop for grubbage I checked under the hood. Sure enough I spot a leaking heater hose from the clamp. And lookie what else I found, an EMPTY coolant overflow tank. Awesome, freaking awesome. So this mod is going in this weekend.

BTW, I picked up a Pelican 1010 Micro case that I am going to mount the ELK inside of and just drill some small holes to run the wires through and then silicone up. Then the plan is to mount it on the side of the dual battery box next to the overflow tank with some industrial Velcro.

 

[NLXTACY]

FINALLY took the time to finish this mod. Works great! All in all its probably taken me over 10 hours to do this mainly because I don't have any freaking parts to work with and I kept having to run to the store. I wound up installing a flashing LED INSIDE the instrument cluster by drilling a 1/4" hole and pressing in the LED. Now I noticed the first time using it that the light went on after turning on the truck after the first time I let the truck warm up. I looked and sure enough I was barely at the bottom line. So I added some distilled water to the tank. LED goes off. Absolutely wonderful.

I liked this mod so much that I took the extra level sender and installed one in the windshield washer tank. Its wonderful for overkill. For this one though I didn't bother with putting in any kind of delay.

Now I just need a warning light for all other fluids!!!

 

[Beowulf]

Pics?

-B-

 

[NLXTACY]

Actually I have some but didn't do a full write up because PHOTOMAN kinda already did it. But maybe I will get some more pics and just do a write up about my particular install.

 

[Squash]

Though the overflow sensor might help, a better system would be monitoring actual coolant level in the top section of your radiator. This sensor gives you real time data and will save you expensive repairs.

In simple terms this system behaves like your Low Fuel Level Sensor which glows when not bathed in fuel.

Low-Coolant Sensor from Solvay Advanced Polymers, LLC

We have this type of system on most of our heavy duty fleet as OEM.