Running coolant through the chassis.?

skipnrocks · May 30, 2014

I want to run my coolant through the chassis. Its kinda an after thought to keep things clean. my top rail is continuous from front bumper to the back where the radiator is mounted.

My question is based on the ideal place to have the hose I could hole saw about a foot before the bumper and add a T in to allow flow of water, and about 3 inches from where it connects in the back do the same. I guess my question is doing this am I setting myself up for air bubbles and over heating? If I tried it should I try and put a bleeder at the end of the section? Or will it all work it self our harmlessly?

greenlion · May 30, 2014

I cut the rails and put a block off plate in right next to the necks. Two close cuts with a sawzall and drop in a 3/16" thick hole saw drop, weld around. No air problems.

Elliott · May 30, 2014

I do the same thing he listed except I cut it with cut off wheels. 1 1/4" pipe fits standard radiator hoses great. I also make the hose that runs to the top of the motor out of pipe with a piece of radiator hose connecting each end. If you do it like this you can weld a 1/4" pipe nipple with a plug to the top of the piece of pipe, run the motor for a few minutes then take the pipe plug out and it will push most of the air out, I can bleed mine like this in a matter of minutes.

skipnrocks · May 30, 2014

i am crazy tired so i so i am half dumb or more but not sure i follow your bleed method? but i like the idea ti weld a plug in..

cmoultrie · May 30, 2014

What about rust? Is anyone using the ceramic stuff in theirs?

skipnrocks · May 30, 2014

what ceramic stuff are you talking about?

John Galbreath Jr. · May 30, 2014

skipnrocks said:
my top rail is continuous from front bumper to the back where the radiator is mounted.

Remember the temperatures. It is normally run in the lower rail so you (or other) don't burn yourself. Only seen it once on a top rail and it was Adam Carters old red single seater. He had to put stickers on the tube (HOT -- HOT -- HOT) so people leaning in to talk to him did not grab a hold of a 200 plus temp. tube.

John Galbreath Jr. · May 30, 2014

cmoultrie said:
What about rust?

It will rust without antifreeze. But, no worse than the cast iron block.

Elliott · May 30, 2014

I always run thru the top rail without any problems. And I will get you a picture of my bleed setup

jp fan · May 30, 2014

looks like the top tube will be more likely to take a lot of abuse and maybe get a crack in it

Rockwells607 · May 30, 2014

I've been doing em in the top tube, never had anyone burned and it doesn't get bashed with rocks like the lower tube.. Just my .02 cents

patooyee · May 30, 2014

My last rig had ti run through the top tube for a short length before the top transitioned to the bottom. Everyone would always lean up against it and get surprised. No serious burns but lots of surprises.

skipnrocks · May 30, 2014

patooyee said:
My last rig had ti run through the top tube for a short length before the top transitioned to the bottom. Everyone would always lean up against it and get surprised. No serious burns but lots of surprises.

I will have to take a look at my setup but my top rail is covered by floor all except in the engine bay by the headers I'm pretty sure. It would be hard for any trail obstical to hit the top rail in my setup for sure. If it has places where people get surprised I may have to get some caution hot stickers.

jp fan · May 31, 2014

I just have this in my mind fresh right now but it would sucked tons more to have 190* water hitting them also, just seems to be just as easy to have a dedicated pipe for water. I think it was Smokey Yunick that carried extra gas in his roll bars and won a lot that way until he got caught

BUG-E J · May 31, 2014

New buggy is run through the top rail and it surprised me how hot EVERYTHING around it got. I'm pleased with it though.

yankster · May 31, 2014

Mine is the top tube also. Good thing because the rocks up here are rough on the bottom one....

John Galbreath Jr. · May 31, 2014

yankster said:
Mine is the top tube also. Good thing because the rocks up here are rough on the bottom one....

The way my Wide Open Design chassis is in Solo Buggy, that is not much of an issue. There is another tube lower going to the skid plates. You can see the water tube in this drawing. It is the one "open" front and rear on each side. Solo is a modified narrow version of the Evolution chassis.

Elliott · Jun 2, 2014

This is the bleeder I was talking about, everyone ive seen bleed one took forever, this does it very quickly, and also about as simple as it gets. Just make sure its a little higher than the highest point of the motors coolant.

yankster · Jun 2, 2014

A couple of 1/8" holes drilled in the thermostat helps bleed out the air as well.

BamaTJ · Jun 2, 2014

My buggy had a rear dad with coolant through chassis. There were some leaks at first, enter the stop leak. They system became hard to get air out of, but we finally got it all out.