Facia coolant bottle keeps filling up and overflowing

[95Viper]

I live in Michigan. I'm familiar with the burping process since I changed my antifreeze last year and had no problem during the summer.

Now that it's winter I store the car. I start my 95 Viper every 3 weeks for about 10-15 minutes. A few months ago antifreeze overflowed from the facia bottle. I checked it and it was full. I drained it and burped the car thinking air in the engine was causing the problem.

Well, it's still happening. I filled and burped last weekend. I set the level to the cold mark in the facia bottle. I burped and burped and let the car warm up and shut it down. I let cool down, burped more, topped of surrogate tank(one with radiator cap), had facia bottle at cold level and thought life was good.

Today I checked it (car is cold...I didn't start it). The facia bottle level is almost up to the hot mark. I bet if I start it again maybe once or twice it will completely fill up and overflow again. What is happening??

I pulled a sample of oil and am sending for analysis because maybe air is getting from cylinders into coolant. Is there anything else (thermostat, some valve thing or something that could be wrong or stuck or something)??



Even after burping following everyones directions

 

[BruceW]

Check the vacuum valve on coolant tank cap. It's the little metal disk on the bottom of the cap. It's supposed to be flush against the cap and has a light spring to hold it shut. Mine was loose and so it was blowing coolant into the fascia tank once pressure built up in the system. The valve is supposed to stay shut except when the car cools down and then opens to pull coolant from the fascia tank back into the system.

 

[95Viper]

Forgot to write...replaced cap after it first occurred, thought it was a cheap fix but it didn't end up being it.

 

[Steve-Indy]

Did you pressure test old/new cap?? I had one that popped off at 20-21 lbs causing the same symptom.

 

[Dave Adkins]

I'm almost positive that what you refer to as "the surrogate tank" (the one with the radiator cap) should
not be topped off. My 1994 RT/10s "surrogate tank" was normally about 1/3 full when the car was cooled
off.

You have to leave room for normal expansion. See if your problem goes away by simply ensuring that it's not
topped off.

 

[Tom F&L GoR]

There are two types of radiator caps! Some have a spring to hold the metal disc closed, some do not have the spring! (I think they're called drop-center and spring-center?) The drop center kind relies on splash to close the disc and then pressure to keep it closed. Under pressure both work the same, but when the coolant system cools off, the non-spring version allows for sooner re-filling. My '94 came with a non-spring version. I had a similar curiousity about sporadic coolant overflow bottle filling, learned about the two types, and guessed that a large, slow heating system (like a 4 gallon Gen 1 system) would build up pressure slower than usual, was not letting the disc close early enough in the warming up cycle, but pushing out fluid. I replaced it with a spring center type and it's been fine since, many miles ago.

 

[95Viper]

I'm going to do everything you guys say and also check my cap type. I called Dodge to verify they gave me the right part. They said the original cap was superceeded by 52079880AA(maybe a spring versus a drop valve). He went and got one and said it was a 16 lbs. cap. I swear the one I got (my receipt says 52079880AA) says 20 lbs. on the top but I verify that tonight.

What is the correct lbs.?

 

[BruceW]

On a '99 it's 17 psi +/- 1 psi

 

[Snake Bitten]

So said 95Viper

I pulled a sample of oil and am sending for analysis because maybe air is getting from cylinders into coolant.

How about testing your coolant for hydrocarbons, with would be more indicative of this type of head gasket leak, if it is a head gasket...higher cylinder pressure than in the coolant system...You also may consider doing a leak down test...

Hopefully it's just the cap!

 

[95Viper]

Gerald, Do you know who or how I would test the coolant. I think my lab only did oil? Craig

 

[Jack B]

It is pretty easy to cross check for leakage, a good automotive store will have 1 oz bottles of a dye that can be put in either the oil or the radiator(they are different) and checked with an ultraviolet light. Just a little contamination will show up dramatically. I would put the dye in the oil, run the car and check the upper radiator bottle for contamination. I bought the kit from Eastwoods (mail order)

 

[Paul S Lacey]

Had the same problem with my 95 RT when I first had it.

The overspill bottle had been holed by the fascia bolt no doubt by a speed **** or a low driveway pushing the bolt up into the bottle.

This meant every time the level was set as soon as the car was hot the water was passed to the bottle which leaked.

I used a coin and some fibreglass resin and glued it in as reinforcement.

Hope its that simple

 

[95Viper]

Thanks for dye information Jack...I'm getting back my oil sample information from the lab today but I'm definitely doing this too. Thanks Paul but my overflow bottle fills up and I have to **** it out to get it down so it's definitely not a hole. I'm cutting the screw 1/2" so I don't have this in the future though.

 

[95Viper]

4/25 Update

Radiator cap - Does anyone wonder why Dodge switched from a drop center cap 52079880AA 16 lbs. to a spring center cap 4596198 17 lbs. on Vipers? If you read Tom and Bruce's comments above it makes you wonder. Sure does me so I bought the spring center one (which is standard on 2001) and I'll try that.

Hose clamps - I ordered (4) 4592126 clamps to clamp the rubber to metal connections between radiator bottle and facia bottle but the parts drawing was deceiving. These are actually the clamps for the hose just below the overflow hose and might be too big. I'll check tonight.

Oil test - I should have results today

Coolant test - I'm ordering the dye kit and putting it in oil to see if it makes it into antifreeze through cylinder leakage.

Gaskets - I checked all over car. No leaks on block under manifold, thermostat, etc. None anywhere.