1954 Chevy Pickup | Coolant Return System

July 1st, 2003 : Coolant Return System

The overflow tube on my truck radiator simply went from the radiator cap, down along the side of the radiator, to the ground ... so everytime I ran the engine to full operating temperature I lost coolant, and of course it was spilling into the environment, which certainly isn't cool, so I got all the info I needed from Hotrodders.com and put a coolant return system in.

It was an extremely simple and easy thing to do, too. I checked my Summit and Jegs catalogs ... I liked Jegs best -- they had a Jazz container that was pretty nice -- but both offered 1-quart systems at $16 ... add shipping to that and the idea of having to wait a few days, plus the fact that these systems don't offer any way of seeing how much coolant is in the container, and I decided it wasn't what I wanted. Instead, I went to my local Pep Boys and found a 1.5-quart system for ten bucks! Bingo!
Coolant Return System Installed

I couldn't mount it very comfortably anyplace else but the firewall, so I made a trip to Home Depot and bought a 10-foot roll of 3/8-inch braided tubing and some hose clamps. I cut the radiator overflow tube near the top of the radiator and ran a hose to the bottom of the catch-can, and then ran a piece of hose from the top of the catch-can, down into the frame of the truck ... topped off the radiator with water, put anti-freeze in the catch-can, and took a 2-hour trip up to North Jersey and back. My temp gauge never sat so steady, and I didn't lose any coolant!

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