Coolant Recovery Tank Replacement

lsdarkshadow

lsdarkshadow

Dedicated LVC Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2009
Messages
569
Reaction score
0
Location
Milwaukee
I am going to replace my tank and was wondering if someone who has done this already has used the Dorman brand on. If so, did you have problems swaping in the sensor from the old tank and how is it located. I drive my car every day so I want to have all the info before I start. Thanks.
 
The LS doesn't have a coolant recovery tank. It has a degas reservoir. The difference is that recovery tanks are not pressurized. The degas bottle has no sensor in or on it. What are you talking about there?
 
I also just got my Dorman tank. It looks pretty straight forward- the hard part being getting the cowl and strut brace out of the way. I'm also curious about the sensor. The correct name is expansion tank- it does operate under pressure and helps remove air from the system. They appear to be identical inside and out (without having the old one out of the car).
 
Well the part is called the recovery tank when you buy it from Ford or from Rock auto,(both OEM or Dorman) so that's what i assumed it was called. Also, the Dorman part says no sensor which led me to believe the OEM model had one. If it dosen't then awsome, no problem on the swap. Although it is commonly called the degas bottle, you can't purchase it that way.

So, I am replacing my degas bottle and was wondering if the Dorman one is a good swap part, and if it only says "no sensor" to be exact cause some vehicles have sensors.

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,c...ch+for+Body-Exterior+Bumper+Cover+VARIOUS+MFR

Thanks
 
Joegr- wasn't tryin to climb on ya ....havin a bad day. Duche boss is outta town and I hate the other manager I have to work with all F$#kin weekend. Just wanna fix my car, and then get really drunk.
 
lsdarkshadow said:
Joegr- wasn't tryin to climb on ya ....havin a bad day. Duche boss is outta town and I hate the other manager I have to work with all F$#kin weekend. Just wanna fix my car, and then get really drunk.
Click to expand...

No worries. I didn't consider it to be meant to cause any offense. It just explained your reasoning, and did a good job at that. I didn't know that Ford parts called it a recovery tank, but I am not too surprised. They don't always even call something by the same name in different sections of the service manuals. I know that the tanks on some Ford cars do have low coolant level sensors, but I don't think any of the LS ones ever had one.

A little advice. You don't have to like the people you work with (although that does help), but you really shouldn't waste hate on them. They're not worth it. Of course, that is easy for me to say. I work with a great group of people.
 
joegr said:
A little advice. You don't have to like the people you work with (although that does help), but you really shouldn't waste hate on them. They're not worth it. Of course, that is easy for me to say. I work with a great group of people.
Click to expand...

I'm a chef, and we get some of biggest idiots in the Front of house operations. Low talent pool in Milwaukee I guess.
 
02LincLS said:
I also just got my Dorman tank. It looks pretty straight forward- the hard part being getting the cowl and strut brace out of the way. I'm also curious about the sensor. The correct name is expansion tank- it does operate under pressure and helps remove air from the system. They appear to be identical inside and out (without having the old one out of the car).
Click to expand...

if you just remove the 2 bolts on the strut brace closet to the bottle, you can move it enough to slide the bottle out
 
Alright, got the tank out but ran out of daylight. First thing I did was pop the windshield wipers off (2 nuts).
Remove the plastic windshield cowl.
Remove the 2 strut tower brace bolts.
Pull the air bleeder hose off of the side of the tank.
Unclamp the top hose going into the tank using some channel locks.
Wiggle the tank up.
Pray that your hose clamp is facing the right way on the bottom hose. If Ford used NORMAL hose clamps, this job would take 10 minutes.:mad: If they used a half decent tank, this job would be avoided completely. If you cant reach this clamp, you can attempt to remove the clamp on the other end of the hose, by the back of the engine. Otherwise,
Remove clamp and carefully pull tank out of hose.
Reverse order to re-assemble. I'm going to pick up a normal hose clamp in the morning so that I can easily tighten the lower hose clamp with a screwdriver. There's just not enough room to get channel locks down on the bottom hose, especially with it so short.
Fill and bleed system per the tech article.
Drive until the next item breaks.
 
02LincLS said:
Alright, got the tank out but ran out of daylight. First thing I did was pop the windshield wipers off (2 nuts).
Remove the plastic windshield cowl.
Remove the 2 strut tower brace bolts.
Pull the air bleeder hose off of the side of the tank.
Unclamp the top hose going into the tank using some channel locks.
Wiggle the tank up.
Pray that your hose clamp is facing the right way on the bottom hose. If Ford used NORMAL hose clamps, this job would take 10 minutes.:mad: If they used a half decent tank, this job would be avoided completely. If you cant reach this clamp, you can attempt to remove the clamp on the other end of the hose, by the back of the engine. Otherwise,
Remove clamp and carefully pull tank out of hose.
Reverse order to re-assemble. I'm going to pick up a normal hose clamp in the morning so that I can easily tighten the lower hose clamp with a screwdriver. There's just not enough room to get channel locks down on the bottom hose, especially with it so short.
Fill and bleed system per the tech article.
Drive until the next item breaks.
Click to expand...


"here's just not enough room to get channel locks down on the bottom hose"

there is if you cut out some of that metal thats in the way, lol alittle wont hurt, and it will make it easier the next time - good job tho
 
Here are some pics of what you can't see until the tank is removed. The cracks are difficult to see with the camera, but they are there. This is what is causing my leaks and letting air into the system. The last picture shows the metal tube, or at least where it should be. Mine had fallen inside the tank!
I'm hoping this alone fixes my leak and poor heat at idle, and that my aux pump is fine.

02 LS Expansion Tank 001 small.jpg


02 LS Expansion Tank 002 small.jpg


02 LS Expansion Tank 003 small.jpg


02 LS Expansion Tank 004 small.jpg
 
Lincoln Jealous said:
"There's just not enough room to get channel locks down on the bottom hose"

there is if you cut out some of that metal that's in the way, lol a little wont hurt, and it will make it easier the next time - good job tho
Click to expand...

Where did you cut?! Not only will it look like $hit and rust like a ba$tard, but its uni-body. The strut tower is structural. The rest of the stuff in the way is the brake booster, fender, and firewall. You still wouldn't get enough room even if you did.
 
02LincLS said:
Where did you cut?! Not only will it look like $hit and rust like a ba$tard, but its uni-body. The strut tower is structural. The rest of the stuff in the way is the brake booster, fender, and firewall. You still wouldn't get enough room even if you did.
Click to expand...



i took the wheel off, and right above where the fuel filter goes, theres like a little triangle cut out to get to the bottom hose clamp, i just expanded the triangle hole to get my wrench in there, also my degas bottle looked exactly like yours with the crack, everyones does, its unbelievable!
 
I got everything back together last night- took 10 minutes after I used a normal hose clamp. No cutting or anything. It did take forever and a day to get the air out of the system. I was idling at 2000 rpm and the engine temp was normal, but no heat inside. I said screw it and took it out for a drive, bringing all my tools and a spare coolant jug with me just in case it decided to throw up. I drove around in first and second gear and finally started to get heat. I pulled into a parking lot and bled and added some more coolant to bring it up to the right level. Idling at 3000 rpm did the trick, just kept bleeding the air and filling the tank. It now blows out HOT at idle instead of luke warm.

One side note, make life easy and just take the strut tower brace right out of the car instead of just unbolting one side. You don't want to break the tab off the new tank trying to squeeze it by the brace. Also, line up your windshield wipers where you want them (on the heated wiper strip) before you bolt them back down. Oh, and put the plastic windshield cowl on before the wipers! :p
 
My 2000 LS V8 is starting to overheat and leaks coolant right behind the drivers front wheel area. Does it seem likely that my degass (recovery tank) is the leaking and causing air to enter the system? Can't see a dang thing from up top, will crawl underneath.

Kool LS
 
I replaced mine on friday, bought the tank with hoses at the Lincoln dealer in Glendale ca for 120 bucks. I could not tell where the leak was coming from Tank or hoses so I got the Lincoln tank with hoses. Put the car on ramps, this helps when the hose clamp is facing the wrong direction and you have to push the clamp from under the car. Once I got the clamp back I tied a very sharp khife to the end of my Mizuno 500 10.5 driver and cut the hose lenth wise off the nipple. It helps to have 2 people when dealing with the clamp and lower hose. I do not work on cars, I have never worked on cars and got a D in auto shop 29 years ago. Being that I did not know what the hell I was doing, I got pissed and hit the vodka. Took me 8 hours counting the booze run. No nuts or bolts left over and car runs great. I am still looking for the dam wiper bolts.
 
GSXRDUDE said:
I replaced mine on friday, bought the tank with hoses at the Lincoln dealer in Glendale ca for 120 bucks. I could not tell where the leak was coming from Tank or hoses so I got the Lincoln tank with hoses. Put the car on ramps, this helps when the hose clamp is facing the wrong direction and you have to push the clamp from under the car. Once I got the clamp back I tied a very sharp khife to the end of my Mizuno 500 10.5 driver and cut the hose lenth wise off the nipple. It helps to have 2 people when dealing with the clamp and lower hose. I do not work on cars, I have never worked on cars and got a D in auto shop 29 years ago. Being that I did not know what the hell I was doing, I got pissed and hit the vodka. Took me 8 hours counting the booze run. No nuts or bolts left over and car runs great. I am still looking for the dam wiper bolts.
Click to expand...

lol, yep gotta take the wipers off too, atleast when you find the bolts adjust the wipers to how you like them:D good job,
 
well i just started changing the tank on my new lincoln and come to find out that all 4 strut tower brace bolts are broke, so now while everything is off, i think i am going to have a fun time gettinng those bolts out:mad:
 
Well if u are talking about the strut tower bolts, then no not really but if u don't want your car flexing in turns thenu would have it, which is why I'm fixing it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 307 (members: 1, guests: 306)
Back
Top