Power Steering Reservoir

[scottm]

Impressive. If you send it to me I can anodize it with the stuff I send out every day. I usually do black, but I've got a job coming that will require red and gold anodizing. It'll probably be a month for the colors. Black would probably dissipate heat the best.

I don't think you've increased cooling much. You've increased surface area a bit, and changed steel to aluminum, but the thick aluminum may not transfer heat as readily as the thin steel. My aged BMW has a PS cooler, that would be helpful. You could run the incoming fluid through finned, aluminum tubing to dissapate some heat. I can't find my source of finned tubing this morning, but it's available somewhere. Even a coil of smooth aluminum tubing would get rid of a fair amount of heat.

 

[concretejungle]

not off on a tangent here, but didn't tools or clown mention in another thread that he's not sure cooling the fluid is the way to go? I thought i read that somewhere in his post.

 

[Beowulf]

I don't think you've increased cooling much. You've increased surface area a bit, and changed steel to aluminum, but the thick aluminum may not transfer heat as readily as the thin steel.

Scott,
In post #11, Bill mentions the different types of fins he is considering for the reservoir to increase the cooling. Any suggestions for the types of grooves?

-B-

 

[scottm]

Scott,
In post #11, Bill mentions the different types of fins he is considering for the reservoir to increase the cooling. Any suggestions for the types of grooves?

-B-

Yep, saw that. The fins will help, and the fact that the fluid will spend more time in the reservoir gives more cooling time. I don't see where the fluid enters, it would help to bring it in at an angle so it swirls. That would put the hottest fluid along the wall for max cooling.

As far as fin shapes, there aren't many options. I'd put it in a lathe, use a thin cutoff tool, and make as many fins as deep as you dare. You don't need much wall beyond the threaded holes for the end caps. Tapered fins seem to do better than straight, but perhaps not enough to justify the effort.

Like all Bill's mods, this is cool, and I'm envious again.

 

[FirstToy]

Here's more on the Appleton finned reservoir with filter as used in a rock crawler.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/PR-Hydro_Steering/index3.html

This guy raises the question of vented vs non-vented and says vented is the way to go for his set up.
Bill's (Photoman) beautiful reservoir looks non-vented, so I presume this non-vented unit would work for an 80. I have not found actual dimensions, but it looks very tall.

he said he was venting the lid.

that link is interesting- looks like it's not 'plug-n-play' if you want a vented lid. he did suggest putting it in-line w/ your current resivoir as a possibility - any thoughts on that? maybe below the current resivoir?

also simply adding a ps cooler- that might be the simplest way right?

 

[Photoman]

I think you shoud send it to me for field testing because if you put it on your truck it will never leave the garage.....................


Another work of art Bill, but you already knew that....



D-

Yes but my garage has more obstacles than the Rubicon. Should I include the slightly wet infrared temperature gun in with the shipment?



Thanks all. Here are some pictures of the way I was thinking of doing the fins. I just did them real quick for an example with a ball nosed end mill. The top of the fins I did not waste the time rounding off for the example. The reservoir tube thickness is 3/8" so I was going to go 1/4" deep with the fins. To avoid getting into the threads for the lid I was going to ramp in with the tool on the top part of the reservoir. The top of the fins in the pictures are about 1/8". After seeing the grooves in real life I am now leaning toward the 1/4" or 3/8" groove width. What do you think? It might have a different perspective with the groove tops being 1/4" wide.

Keep in mind my very first sentence was to create more capacity, any cooling would be secondary. I was going to include a filter and a power steering cooler. In fact I gave a member my stock cooler a long time ago.

Bill

 

[Photoman]

Since I decided to retain the stock filter thingy in addition to adding an external filter the high pressure return then must come in at the stock location near the bottom of the reservoir. I tapped a bung in at 1/4" NPT but could not easily find a 90 degree fitting for Earl's power steering hose in this size. So I bought a -6 AN male weld in fitting and will go with this for the return to reservoir. Here are a couple of pictures of the filter deal that Toyota designed. The return to reservoir is baffled and forced either through the screen or up into the reservoir. Any additional fluid that the pumps needs can sift down through the screen and out the bottom. Notice with the standoffs there is that circular hole in the plastic. This sits on top of that raised boss that I had talked about earlier that helps keep the big gunk from going down into the pump. Very clever of them but as I mentioned earlier it made it difficult to clock the in and out in design. Anyway, to the curious these pictures should clarify what is in your reservoir.

Bill

 

[scottm]

Are you going to mill around the OD? Or mill these grooves along the axis of the tube? I'm not sure why you're using a mill instead of a lathe.

 

[Photoman]

Scott, it would be along the axis. In other words if it was mounted on the cruiser the grooves would be vertical. If I had a 4th axis it would be more simple to do. As it is I was just going to mount it on a rotary table and work out how many degrees to turn for each groove and do it that way. I don't have any indexing plates. I was not too concerned about it being perfect. In the back toward the engine I was not sure I wanted to put any grooves there anyway because of the mount. Speaking of the mount I had considered adding another brace to the reservoir bottom because of the extra weight but doubt I will do it.

Bill

 

[scottm]

The vertical grooves will collect less dust, and the round shape will make them easier to clean. Excellent design so far. What's the outside diameter?

 

[bjowett]

Great work Bill... I have one of these opened up in the garage trying to figure out a larger rezi.

One point, I am wondering if the sieve is more for air elimination from the fluid rather than filtering metal particles and such? If so, it might be better to have it up topside like the stock rezi?

 

[Photoman]

The vertical grooves will collect less dust, and the round shape will make them easier to clean. Excellent design so far. What's the outside diameter?

Scott, the OD is 5". The cylinder part is 5" X 6". I was going to set it a little higher than stock. I made the outlet 1/2" NPT and bought a 45 to see how that will work out. I might have to tweak the feed to the pump to get the hose to line up.

Lol, It might be good if it did collect dust. Then it could blend in better with the rest of the cruiser.

bjowett
I would say the screen is for filtering. I plan on tossing a magnet in the bottom of mine.

As far as the location on the screen, on mine the pressure feed coming back is 1" from the bottom of the reservoir. The reservoir is approx. 3" high so it is 2" from the top.

A couple of pics showing the inside of the lid. I made the bottom like the stock one. I don't know why they neck the hole down. I actually machined the gasket by sandwiching gasket material between two pieces of wood and maching the whole thing.
The other picture shows the quick jig I made to eventually weld the brackets to the new reservoir and so it will work with the same bolt pattern on the intake. The picture also shows how Toyota has that drain tube sticking up a bit.

Bill

 

[scottm]

1/4" ball nose, 1/4" deep, 10 degree increments, 36 grooves. .186" between grooves.

 

[scottm]

Here's 12 degrees, 30 grooves, .273" between grooves. I assumed #10 tapped holes. This will look great, hope to see some pics when you're done.

 

[gray]

The 1/2 grooves might look "cooler"(IMO) but wondering about the total surface area; ie: the narrower grooves will give more grooves total which should translate into more surface area, for cooling; is that about correct?

Anyway you do it, it is a neat piece of work.

g

 

[Photoman]

Thanks Scott. Thats a beautiful drawing. I was trying to do it on a piece of paper and wrap it around the cylinder. I could not find a piece of paper long enough though. j/k

I think you are right on that surface area thing gray.

Bill

 

[gray]

One way to tell (which is more efficient) would be to do two; one with wider grooves, one with narrower grooves, and then stick a thermometer in the fluid; when you are done, you could then raffle off the one you don't keep

From a appearance standpoint; the wider grooves may give it a "beefier" look IMHO. (do a test sample of both?)

g

 

[scottm]

Kind of a crude sketch, I can't remember if you have a drawing program. I could be done with math alright, but I like to believe others are as lazy as I am. I'd like to give you a 3D rendering, but I haven't had the time I expected to learn SolidWorks. Sometimes management isn't as fun as I'd like.

 

[Will Van]

Can I buy one of these from you, @Photoman???

 

[Photoman]

I never finished making this one. I think there might be several commercial ones available.