Radiator Overflow Requirement

[rle9999]

I am new to NASA, but have many HPDE track days with the Porsche club. I have a Boxster S with a few modifications. I note on the NASA Tech form an item that says "radiator overflow". My car has a radiator overflow that directs the flow to the street. Is that ok, or do I need to fashion some kind of a container to catch the radiator overflow?

[Diller]

I am new to NASA, but have many HPDE track days with the Porsche club. I have a Boxster S with a few modifications. I note on the NASA Tech form an item that says "radiator overflow". My car has a radiator overflow that directs the flow to the street. Is that ok, or do I need to fashion some kind of a container to catch the radiator overflow?

 

You need a catch tank of some sort. Doesn't have to be fancy, just don't want super slick coolant on the track. Summit Racing sells the Dorman brand of overflow tanks that come in an array of sizes/shapes that should get you in business (10-20 bucks). I have seen everything from a pro welded aluminum tank to a beer can for overflow tanks. Just do what you can to make sure coolant doesn't drip on the track.

[rle9999]

Thanks for the info - - installing a catch tank at the end of the overflow tube causes some real difficulties....however, I may have a possible solution. What do you think of the following idea?

 

The water filler and oil filler tubes are located in the trunk of the car. They are housed in a plastic container that is about a 1/2 gallon in volume. If the water were to overflow out of the pressurized radiator cap, it is collected in the plastic container and then dumped to the ground via a rubber hose located at the bottom of the plastic container. If I were to block the rubber hose so that the water could not discharge to the ground, it would then be forced to collect in the container and eventually overflow into the trunk.

 

Would that be a workable solution?

 

Thanks in advance for your help on this...

[Diller]

Thanks for the info - - installing a catch tank at the end of the overflow tube causes some real difficulties....however, I may have a possible solution. What do you think of the following idea?

 

The water filler and oil filler tubes are located in the trunk of the car. They are housed in a plastic container that is about a 1/2 gallon in volume. If the water were to overflow out of the pressurized radiator cap, it is collected in the plastic container and then dumped to the ground via a rubber hose located at the bottom of the plastic container. If I were to block the rubber hose so that the water could not discharge to the ground, it would then be forced to collect in the container and eventually overflow into the trunk.

 

Would that be a workable solution?

 

Thanks in advance for your help on this...

 

Not sure I can visualize this as I am not familiar with your car at all. The catch tank needs to do two things:

 

1) Keep you safe

2) Keep everybody else safe

 

 

If it does those things you should be ok.

[kbrew8991]

If I'm picturing things correctly that first container is already an overflow, so long as it's sufficient size there's no requirement for additional modification to meet the requirements

[Skidmark]

If I'm picturing things correctly that first container is already an overflow, so long as it's sufficient size there's no requirement for additional modification to meet the requirements

 

What I'm reading is that container drains any liquid that goes into it immediately to the ground, so if that's the case, it's definitely not considered an overflow container.

 

However, he's asking if he plugs up that container's drain, whether it would qualify as an overflow container. My answer would be yes it does count as long as plugging it up ensures that no coolant will drain onto the track surface under normal track driving conditions.

[Steven Snyder]

The water filler and oil filler tubes are located in the trunk of the car. They are housed in a plastic container that is about a 1/2 gallon in volume. If the water were to overflow out of the pressurized radiator cap, it is collected in the plastic container and then dumped to the ground via a rubber hose located at the bottom of the plastic container. If I were to block the rubber hose so that the water could not discharge to the ground, it would then be forced to collect in the container and eventually overflow into the trunk.

 

Do that, except also relocate the existing rubber hose to the top of the container, so that when the container fills up it will dump out onto the ground and not into your trunk. This should meet the rules. It's unlikely that the 1/2 gallon container would overflow unless you have a major cooling system failure, which nobody's overflow container is going to be a solution for...

 

Use a removable rubber plug to plug the original hole at the bottom of the container, so you can pull it out to drain anything that collects in there.