Coolant overflow capacity?

There's also a difference between a "coolant recovery" tank and an "expansion" tank. Lemmie splain, Lucy. A coolant recovery tank is simply that. A tank that catches overflow from the radiator. An expansion tank is actually part of the pressurized radiator and must be located higher than the radiator's top tank. These are normally used on vehicles that mount the radiator way down low and have no cap on the radiator. The radiator fill cap in on the expansion tank. Ford used expansion tank early on in the late 50s and through the 60s. Now almost all new cars have them. Lastly, there's a "puke tank". The puke tank is just that. A small tank that only gets what the radiator discharges. The difference between it and a "real" recovery tank is, the recovery tank has a tube that runs down to the bottom from the cap. That tube is where the coolant comes in from the radiator, but it also is where the excess coolant in the overflow tank is sucked back into the radiator when it cools back down. I've never seen any style of recovery tank that worked very well.