Who has relocated the surge tank and who has not?

[Richard Oben]

In my effort to get all the little things on the GTM fixed and finished. Fuel tanks, AC, power mirrors etc. I am now considering moving the surge, (recovery, header, whatever) tank to the rear of the car. Now I have never had a problem, not ever not once. I burped the system with a mighty vac and have not had any issue. The car runs about 200 which is apparently normal. Mind you the AC has never been on, since it quit working sometime between the time we got it working and put the body on. Very frustrating to be the guy that got it working with the corvette stuff and then have it quit. So far not getting power to the AC request is all I have. The fuel cross over started leaking, have to fix that first.

Anyway, since I have half of the car apart I was curious if moving the tank is a MUST do or am I ok as I have been so far?

Also the heater diverter bypass thing, I do not have it but I can see the benefit of keeping the coolant moving, but again so far no issues. Not sure if the vette had this set up or not.

I want Facts not speculation, people with miles on both systems, or people who have changed and found a benefit on either system. If you are still building and did either, great but not really what I need to know.

Thanks in advance. Richard.

[twinturbo gtm]

I have the stock set up like you. My air has worked and I always use it ,I have 4800 mi on this set up and have never had a problem. But I did disconnect the water shut off to the vintage air so the hot water runs through all the time. The AC is still cold, but would be better with the shut off working. I think the bypass valve crash sells would work best if I ever get to it. also one other thing I have read was relocating the steam port to the top of the water pump instead of going all the way up to the top of the rad, but for now if it is not broke I am not going to fix it just my 2 cents

[kbentzel]

Richard,
I have the stock setup, stock vintage air and solenoid. Once I got the air out of the system I have never had an overheating issue and I have 10k miles on mine.
Keith

[fastthings]

Originally Posted by Richard Oben

I want Facts not speculation, people with miles on both systems, or people who have changed and found a benefit on either system. If you are still building and did either, great but not really what I need to know.

(sorry for speculating)
I would like to comment on this, I do not have my GTM running.
I have experience with systems that use a remote surge tank from 2 different cars other than the GTM.

If we believe that water circulates, the exchange of cold and hot water under it's own power.

The surge tank up front is lower than the heads on the motor.
When the system is full, no air pockets, no problems.
When the water pump is pumping, no problems.

I believe the only time anyone would have a problem with the tank up front is when they finnaly got some air in the system and it was drove hard and then shut off. At that point the water will no longer circulate threw the heads. The air pockets will settle at the highest point, the heads. The over heating will only happen when the car has been shut down.

Wether it works while driving or not, the colling system needs to have a spot that is higher than the motor, so the heads have water after the motor is shut off.

This really is not speculation, this is a must for any car manufacture. Sart looking at any and all cars, pop the hood. If you see a remote surge tank, it is only because the top of the radiator is lower than the top of the motor. If you don't see one you will notice that the radiator is higher than the top of the motor. They would not go threw the extra expense of adding a remote tank unless it's needed.

So ya, I just spit out alot for not being a engenier, or a designer. I am not against being proven wrong.

Gene

Shh, listen, here comes Crash

[crash]

As far as the bypass valve goes, as I have said all along, you can deal with the issues that are present because of the Vintage Air solenoid valve by just being aware of the issue and managing the A/C use appropriately. The Heater Bypass Valve upgrade kit just makes it a no brainer.

As for the header tank, I am not going to claim that it is an absolute must have. Instead, I would suggest that you do an internet search on the proper way to construct a vehicle cooling system, and then ask yourself if the way the GTM is designed is proper. I have known more than a couple people now that have said they didn't have any issues for quite some time, and then, one day, while out driving, they did. I have also had ONE person now report to me that they STILL had an overheating issue after installing the header tank upgrade.

Point is that it won't cure everything, but it does put things in places that are more of a standard in the industry as far as layout.

In both cases, I would say that it is more of a convenience and "forget about it" type of thing where you may or may not have issues "down the road" if you don't do these things, but as they are much easier to do while building the car, and relatively cheap, many builders do indeed choose to do these "upgrades" just so that they don't have to remember the sequence of A/C control inputs or so they don't need to worry about using a vacuum cleaner to make their cooling system work should they have an issue somewhere out on the road.

[CRAZYBOBDS]

Crash / All,

Can the heater bypass valve upgrade kit be installed after the fact? Or is this something that really needs to be done during the build? Thanks Bob

[crash]

Originally Posted by CRAZYBOBDS

Crash / All,

Can the heater bypass valve upgrade kit be installed after the fact? Or is this something that really needs to be done during the build? Thanks Bob

Sure. So long as you can access the area you put the solenoid valve in, it should be no problem to swap in the bypass valve. Actually, even if you can't get to the original valve, I believe it is a normally open valve, so you could really put the bypass valve anywhere in the heater hoses run and just disconnect the original valve and all should be OK.