Pressurize a cooling system

[xelhan]

Can you pressurize a cooling system having a std cooler, or do you need an aftermarket cooler made to be pressurized - disregard engine and other items?

Chris

[chap52]

Assume by cooler you are referring to what we call the radiator. I don't know if the old radiator would like being pressurized or not. Bigger question is why would you want to add a pressurized system to Mr. Fords' non-pressurized system.
If you are going to add a different engine and "hot rod" the car, then a total change would need to be made to the cooling system... Chap

[Corley]

Originally Posted by chap52

.
If you are going to add a different engine and "hot rod" the car, then a total change would need to be made to the cooling system... Chap

Not necessarily so, on my V6 powered ccpu I have run an open cooling system for several years without even a hint of overheating, and never needs water added either. (It runs an aftermarket beehive radiator, very old, and you cannot rod those out, so it's probably not very efficient.) Some may have different results.

But a stocker in decent condition really has no need for a pressurized system either.

[rotorwrench]

The caps on the radiator would need some work to get the required seal for pressurization since they aren't designed for it. Skip Haney sells a pressure valve that can be added to the overflow tube to get it to pressure up but his valve is only made for near 3 PSI of pressure due to the strength of the original radiator cores. That would be all they could safely take but it would raise the boiling point a bit more.

Skips's valves are really made for the V8 radiators but they would likely work on a Model A too if the radiator cap could be sealed well enough to hold 3 PSI. An old original radiator could have weak points in the core tubes or tanks after 80 or 90 years of abuse so whether it would hold or not is anyones guess.

[California Travieso]

If you just don’t want fluid leaking out on your driveway you can’t put an overflow tank on the radiator. There was a recent thread a week or two ago discussing an overflow tank.

The only reason to pressurize the cooling system is if you live in an area like Inland Southern California, the Southwest United States or Australia were you get over 100 degrees in summer. Not sure you get those temperatures in Sweden.

Brassworks in Paso Robles, CA. (see the “sticky” above for their web site) makes a pressurized radiator to fit a Model A. I visited the Brassworks Shop one summer when it was over 100 degrees outside. My wife wouldn’t even get out, she stayed in the car with the engine and air conditioner running!

David Serrano

[Jim Brierley]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

To answer your question, yes, but other hings need to be done, and considered. As rotorwrench stated, a new neck needs to be soldered to the top tank, so the cap would seal. If using the stock Model A water pump, it may not hold the pressure, and would leak. A hot-rod overflow tank needs to be installed, it can attach to the tabs that hold the shell on. You could also just install an overflow tank to the stock radiator, that would catch all the water, and suck it back in as the engine cools. I suspect you are not using the stock pump, or maybe even the original engine?

[Synchro909]

Originally Posted by Jim Brierley

To answer your question, yes, but other hings need to be done, and considered. As rotorwrench stated, a new neck needs to be soldered to the top tank, so the cap would seal. If using the stock Model A water pump, it may not hold the pressure, and would leak. A hot-rod overflow tank needs to be installed, it can attach to the tabs that hold the shell on. You could also just install an overflow tank to the stock radiator, that would catch all the water, and suck it back in as the engine cools. I suspect you are not using the stock pump, or maybe even the original engine?

I have 4 Model As on the road. 3 of them run 4 psi in the cooling system with no modification to the radiator neck. They each have one of my modified water pumps on them and an overflow tank. The other is absolutley original except that I have a tube running from the bottom of the overflow tube to a bottle mounted near the starter motor. After a drive, as the motor cools, the liquid is drawn back into the top tank and nothing is dropped on the ground/road as Jim describes.
I started upgrading the cooling system after running into overheating problems on a long tour (9,000 miles). My first act was to replace the radiator with a Brassworks heavy duty pressurised one. What a waste of money that was - no improvement AT ALL.

[Chris Haynes]

My '30 Tudor has a closed/pressurized cooling system with overflow tank and uses water-less coolant. I have a Leak-less water pump and have noticed no leakage.
No water = no rust.

[Jim Brierley]

Chris's idea may be the best. Waterless is expensive, but really good, especially if you are running an aluminum head.

[xelhan]

Thank you all for your inputs

Sorry for calling the radiator a cooler!

I have a 1930 AA long wheelbase dually truck, and it runs hot sometimes if I carry a heavy load. If I give her more fuel she’s happy, but that’s not how I like to keep temperature under control. The engine is fully rebuilt - new carburetor, new radiator … A pressurized cooling system would definitely help. The engine is on the weak side and I might install a Flathead V8 in the future. Do you need an aftermarket radiator made to be pressurized, or will the std type radiator make it? I don’t know who made it, so I can’t ask them. I only plan to run 3-4 PSI, so I guess I will give it a try and see what happens.

Chris