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I'm confused! Water swirl tank or header tank?

rumplitter - 9/10/08 at 11:04 AM

I'm confused! Water swirl tank or header tank?

I want to fit a header tank or water swirl pot, but I'm not sure of the difference?

I want to run a top and bottom hose to the and from the engine to the rad, I'm not intending on having a heater.

Can i have an inlet and outlet the same diameter as all the hoses or do i have to stick with the smaller ones associated with usual header tanks?

rumplitter - 9/10/08 at 11:07 AM

i presume this is a header tank?
Rescued attachment medium_2456938884_c38898cbe0_o.jpg

omega0684 - 9/10/08 at 11:45 AM

i never knew you could have a water swirl pot? i've always thought that swirl pots were for high performance fuel systems to take any air out of the fuel lines.

NS Dev - 9/10/08 at 12:02 PM

quote:
Originally posted by omega0684
i never knew you could have a water swirl pot? i've always thought that swirl pots were for high performance fuel systems to take any air out of the fuel lines.

Yes you can, and thats a misinterpretation of their use in fuel systems!

In a FUEL system, a "swirl pot" just acts as a mini tank to keep an injection pump fed with fuel all the time, when cornering might keep it away from the main tank exit point.

NS Dev - 9/10/08 at 12:06 PM

quote:
Originally posted by rumplitter
i presume this is a header tank?

You CAN use the header tank to do both, I have........................

header tank 1

This is in the radiator top hose, 32mm inlet and outlet, stepped in height and tangential to introduce a bit of spin, and with an 8mm bleed connection at the top which connects into the bleed port on the cyl head.

The main function of the header tank, in technical terms, is to allow enough air space for the water to expand into when it is at running temp, (bearing in mind you fill the system at ambient obviously).

If you don't have this space the system will eject water from the pressure cap when hot until it has made space.

In systems where the top of the radiator is not the highest point, and has no cap on it, the header tank allows air space without causing airlocks.

Its quite easy to incorporate a header into the top hose on many installations though. in fact many fit a filler and pressure cap into the top hose, without a header, which seems rather silly to me!!

[Edited on 9/10/08 by NS Dev]

Stott - 9/10/08 at 12:10 PM

Like he said ^^^

Swirl pots swirl whatever liquid is in them using centrifugal force to separate any air from the liquid then this is bled off the top.

Expansion tanks allow for the expansion of the coolant by giving it somewhere to go when it expands and holding the excess so when the sysem cools it's fed back in.

I ran a coolant swirl pot on my fiesta zetec sigma turbo and it did run a little cooler but was mainly cosmetic in my application

hth

NS Dev - 9/10/08 at 12:13 PM

PS, you cn calculate the airpace required, again I did, use the coefficient of expansion of water, and knowing the rough volume of the system, and the running temperature.

Needless to say, on a typical system running at around 85-90 deg C, with between 4 and 6 litres of water in it, you'll need around 120cc of airspace

andylancaster3000 - 9/10/08 at 12:22 PM

This is our setup:

Separate swirl pot and header tank. The swirl pot is in the same location in the system as NS Dev above; on route to rad from back of the head (no thermostat in this setup). Three bleeds from the top of the swirl, top of head and top of rad feed back to the header tank, which feeds into the back of the pump on the CVH.

Swirl pot made from an old ally fire extinguisher bottle and the header tank from a large ally camera lens canister. Buying is the last resort!

[Edited on 9/10/08 by andylancaster3000]

BenB - 9/10/08 at 02:01 PM

Good locost options

Fred W B - 9/10/08 at 07:59 PM

Swirl pot and header tank I made in stainless, from pipe.

Cheers

Fred W B

[img][/img]

Vindi_andy - 10/10/08 at 07:31 AM

Ive reused the expansion tank from my donor and made some mounting brackets out of some offcuts.

Not exactly shiny and pretty like the previous ones but definately locost