Radiator Overflow Bottle?????

[Dodgenut64]

Does anyone know the science behind the radiator overflow bottle? IM putting in a 5.7 hemi into my 64 dart, and im looking at various overflow bottles. i thought to only look at bottles that came out of V8 cars and trucks, but i noticed some smaller engined cars came with some decent size overflow bottles.
Does it matter what size an overflow bottle is? Should it hold a certain amount per the volume of the radiator? example: a v6 overflow bottle should be a touch smaller then a v8s? Again looking at various bottles on ebay, it looks like the overflow bottle on an 81-90 jeep wrangler looks to be the same size as the overpriced repo challenger/cuda overflow bottles (with the green cap).
I also noticed the overflow bottles are the same size on v6 and v8 trucks of the same year (like a dakota with a 6 or 8 ). So does it matter what size overflow bottle i use, provided its not a tiny little one from a 4 banger? does the radiator size determine the overflow bottle size? my guess is yes because they have the level indacator on the sides (full, add, ect).
thanks

 

[dazedduster]

I Believe What Happens Is When The Engine Gets Hot The Water Expands Out The Overflow Into The Bottle, Then As The Engine Cools The Water Contracts (shrinks) And Sucks In From The Overflow Thus Aways Keeping Your Radiator Full, As For Size I Would Think A Change In Size Would Be Ok As Long As It Ws Not To Drastic. Is Seem To Me A Cut By 1/3 Would Work But I Am No Expert.

 

[ThogtheCaveman]

I would think that the overflow bottle size would be dependent on the radiator size. As far as to what size you should use....sorry can't help :angel9:

 

[rumblefish360]

Dazedduster is correct. That's how it works.
The slant six bottle will do in it's size. My unit is approx. a gallon.

 

[Dodgenut64]

thanks fellas. So do ya think the jeep wrangler inline six overflow bottle will big enough or should i keep lookin?

 

[krabysniper]

Post a picture of the jeep bottle you are refering to. The 4.0L jeeps in the late 80's early 90's used what is refered to as a closed loop cooling system and the bottles do not work in the same fashion as the open cooling systems like what are in most early 70's A, B, C, E bodies. If it is an open loop cooling system bottle then as long as it has the minumum capacity necesary to hold all that will expand out of your cooling system, it would be ok, but it HAS to be open loop cooling. I use an overflow tank from a B body in my Dart because I know I will always have enough coolant expansion room with it.