Height of swirl pot ?

[crossram]

Is the height of the swirl pot important? Does it have to be higher than the thermostat on the engine to open it without overflow?

where do most mount the expansion tank?

[RAT GTR]

That is about where I mounted mine.
6 years later and 30,000 miles and no problems

[crossram]

Is your engine thermostat above the level of the swirl pot cap?

[RAT GTR]

Engine is an LS-7, so the thermostat sits about 6" below the top of the pressure reservoir tank,

[BobE]

The swirl pot needs to be the highest point of the system to reduce the chances of an airlock in the cooling system. So the face where the cap seals needs to be above any other part of the system. The hose from thermostat housing needs to go 'uphill' to the swirl pot connection.

[Steve_D]

The Factory layout of the pots has been well proven down the years.
Your best bet is to fit them as the Factory do with the caps as high as possible without fouling the angled face at the top of the bulkhead.

Steve

[crossram]

agreed but it being important you would think the factory would give us a clue as to the height . By distance or length of pipe something except a picture. Most pictures are coupes and I have a Can Am, so the pictures are not so much help.

[UltimaCH]

crossram said:

agreed but it being important you would think the factory would give us a clue as to the height . By distance or length of pipe something except a picture. Most pictures are coupes and I have a Can Am, so the pictures are not so much help.

Well if you look in Stig's Can-Am build diary, which is an encyclopedia of Ultima building, plenty of info in there, more specific to the Saturday 3rd December 2005 page:
http://www.ultima-canam.info/

"...With the bulkhead insulation in place, I could move onto the items that also get mounted to it. Namely, the coolant system swirl pot and expansion tank and the air-con dryer unit. I started with the dryer unit. The first bit of head scratching of the day was required to make the hole in the bulkhead side through which the hose goes to the condenser. I knew roughly where it should go, but thought it safe to check with the factory. So a quick call later and the dimensions were marked. Basically the 1" hole is cut 485mm from the bottom of the bottom chassis rail and 40mm back from the bulkhead face. That done, the dryer could be temporarily mounted on its errr... mount, to derive the position for the holes that I needed to make for it in the bulkhead, aligning the output connector with the hole that I'd just made in the side of the bulkhead. The mount position was marked, the insulation cut away (the foam as about 15mm thick so needs to be removed before I could insert the rivets), holes drilled and the whole lot riveted in place. Oh, make sure you put the jubilee clips onto the mounting bracket before you rivet it on. You can also place a spacer washer behind the mount where the rivets go in to allow you some vertical movement of the jubilee clips that hold the dryer.

Swirl pot and expansion tank in a rather disappointing matt finish Swirl pot mount is the GTR version which is a good deal shallower than the Can-Am one

That done, I moved onto the swirl pot and expansion tank. I was a little disappointed to find that these items were no longer supplied polished, they are matt finish. A call to the factory told me that they were 'all like that now' - but I'm not sure whether I'm entirely convinced and have just ended up with a cheap pair . Anyway, whilst I'd been on the phone about the dryer position, Dave in the factory had also given me their measurements for the swirl pot and expansion tank brackets. The expansion tank bracket is placed 22" up from the bottom chassis rail (to the top of the bracket) and 51/4" in from the side. I opted to place it a bit nearer the dryer unit, but at the same height. After drilling the expansion tank and bracket for the M6 bolts and nylocs, the bracket was mounted to the bulkhead (after stripping the insulation again) using a dozen or so 3.2mm rivets. Then, when I moved onto the swirl pot bracket, I found that the bracket placed the swirl pot quite close to the bulkhead? I checked this against the factory CD and it looked as if my bracket was too shallow - probably from the GTR. Again, I called the factory to check and they confirmed that the brackets were indeed different and kindly offered to make me one up there and then which they duly posted off to me. Still, that meant nothing more could be done to fit it for the time being...".

Hope that helps!

[Ult-Jim]

I did not build my car however pay attention to what fits round, near, or behind and over the top of the coolant caps as you want to be able to be able to grab the caps and turn them to release them without chafing other parts or tearing your skin off in the process. Call the Factory for the definite correct answer. Ult-Jim

[ROWDYRENAULT]

in the tech notes on Vintage air web site they suggest putting the A/C dryer in a place that is not subject to engine heat as much as possible. That seems to make sense when you think of it why subject the refrigerant to more heat then nessescary? If I had a complaint about my first GTRs A/C it was heat soak. If you shut the car down on a very warm day here in Southern California, 90 to 95 very common in the summer it would take 4 or 5 minutes for the A/C to began to deliver cool air. That's a long time in that glass fish bowl. So I am going to mount the dryer in the air path of the side scoops and see if that might help a bit. also the A/C radiator is mounted in the nose so we will see if all that makes the A/C it bit more effective. Lee

Edited by ROWDYRENAULT on Sunday 6th August 02:26

[UltimaCH]

ROWDYRENAULT said:

in the tech notes on Vintage air web site they suggest putting the A/C dryer in a place that is not subject to engine heat as much as possible. That seems to make sense when you think of it why subject the refrigerant to more heat then nessescary? If I had a complaint about my first GTRs A/C it was heat soak. If you shut the car down on a very warm day here in Southern California, 90 to 95 very common in the summer it would take 4 or 5 minutes for the A/C to began to deliver cool air. That's a long time in that glass fish bowl. So I am going to mount the dryer in the air path of the side scoops and see if that might help a bit. also the A/C radiator is mounted in the nose so we will see if all that makes the A/C it bit more effective. Lee

Edited by ROWDYRENAULT on Sunday 6th August 02:26

Good ideas and sensible recommendations, but how do you find space up front to fit the A/C cooler/condenser?

[ROWDYRENAULT]

Rat GTR, my engineer friend, if you can make friends with a engineer. reminded me that the dryer should be in line between the condenser and the evaporator. Hes right, again, so I will amend my thought on the placement of the dryer it will go up in the nose somewhere, yet to be determined. The second part of this is the placement of the condenser in the nose. Rat has mounted his condenser in front of the radiator on a rather simple L bracket off of the radiator itself. the new GTR that I am finishing to replace my old one has the condenser in the front also. Before somebody jumps up and says you can't do that the car will overheat, your blocking the airflow ect ect. Rats has been their for several years now in Southern California with no problems. Lee

[crossram]

agreed but it being important you would think the factory would give us a clue as to the height . By distance or length of pipe something except a picture. Most pictures are coupes and I have a Can Am, so the pictures are not so much help.

[barriejames]

They do supply exact setting out dimensions in the build manual