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| Stainless Steel Radiator Overflow |
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I was driving the Jeep to the "Danbury Big Jeep Drive-in" at the railroad yard in Danbury, CT '
when I heard an awful sound coming from the front of the Jeep. It turned out that the plastic radiator bottle had come loose
and was bashing around on the fan inside the engine bay. I was able to pull over and get it out, but the bottle had seen
better days.
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I walked around the show I saw a show Jeep with a Stainless Steel Radiator
Overflow Container on it. In talking with the guy that owned the Jeep, I came to find out that the reservoir bottle was one
from a hot rod, so when I got home I checked into eBay and found out that they were plentiful and weren't that expensive in
relation to how much it would cost to get a new plastic one.
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I searched around for a place to buy the overflow bottle and I found a dealer on eBay that had
them in the $30 range. I ordered one up and I waited for it to arrive. Within a week I hadn't seen it show up so I emailed
the company and it turned out that they neglected to tell me it was on back order, so I swapped my order out for another model
and I waited. Another 2 weeks passed and I finally called them up. It turns out that the new one I wanted was also back
ordered. I was furious at this point. I couldn't understand why they just wouldn't tell me. I swapped it out for another one
and left negative feedback, the new one arrived a week later.
When it came in, my engine was having issues, so I decided to give it to Jen since hers didn't have one on it and said I would
have her get me one later on when I needed it. After a few months, I found the one I wanted, she ordered it up and it arrived
a few days later. It is a very nice model and is 3" by 12" and looked like it would mount to the radiator shroud without any
issue, so I put it on hold until the new motor came back from the machine shop and I could swap out the motor and have the
radiator bottle installed then.
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With the new motor still at the engine shop, I ordered up a new grille shell and I wanted to put
all the pieces in that I had. I finally got to install the new Stainless Steel Radiator Overflow Container. Since this isn't a
bolt on installation, a little bit of customization had to be done.
The kit came with 2 L-shaped pieces that I drilled and tapped and then drilled holes in the radiator and finally mounted them
onto the radiator itself. With that done, I simply connected everything up and put the radiator into the new grille shell. It
was a lot simpler doing it this way ahead of time instead of doing it once the radiator and grille shell were in the Jeep.
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| Lessons Learned the Hard Way |
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So, my lessons learned here would have to be that you need a couple of hours to lay out what you
want to do and drill the holes accordingly. When the old grille shell was in the Jeep I test fit where I thought it should go
and everything fit as I expected it to. I will have to see what happens when I get the grille shell back into the Jeep.
I took my time and everything came out the way I expected it to. It looks nice on the radiator shell and the way I attached it,
there is no chance that this one will fall off when I am driving it around.
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| Conclusions |
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This is a pretty easy installation to do and it really dresses up the way the radiator bottle
will look. It is a nice upgrade and it doesn't cost a lot of money. Take your time and measure twice before drilling and it
should come out the way you expect. If you can remove the radiator, it really is the easiest way to go.
The approximate build-up costs and installation time can be seen
here.
Take your time and good luck!
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