Jiggling the ball-HELP

[Dartmoor7]

New rad on my 1.4K SS. Bleeds OK except no flow in the small pipe from manifold to top of expansion tank.

Have removed pipe and jiggled the ball inside the manifold but this only gives flow while I'm jiggling and then stops.

Advice please.

 

[Tony Martyr]

What do you want - the trivolli fountains :-)

When you have all the air out of the system, if you just squeeze the top radiator hose you should be able to pump water through the pipe from the manifold into the expansion bottle - I have always assumed that no expansion equals no flow.

[Simos]

Why would you have a ball (no-return valve) in an expansion bottle ? My understanding was that if the engine gets hot and the water expands, it flows into the expansion tank (which should be 1/3 full anyhow) until the engine cools at which point it would get pushed back into the engine by atmospheric pressure as the water contracts (partial vacuum in engine).

 

If there was a non-return valve would the partial vaccum not then drag in air from somewhere giving you air in your cooling system. Or am I wrong.

 

Is the ball a left over from wherever the tank came from that you don't need ?

 

Simon G

[Dartmoor7]

What has confused me is the inference in the Owners Manual:

In the Owners Manual the instructions for bleeding include:

"Check for water being returned to the top of the expansion tank,if

present,the system is fully bled".

This would appear to indicate that there SHOULD be flow through this pipe.

BUT Rob Walker sent this which makes more sense technically:

The ball is there as a one way valve preventing the coolant from circulating

via this spout back to the header tank its other function is that when the

water pump is not producing flow the ball can move away from its seat and

allow any trapped air to be vented back to the header tank. Why people drill

out or remove this ball is that if you have filled your system with hard tap

water the ball will seize up and difficulty in bleeding the cooling system

will result. So if your ball is stuck free it with a piece of thin wire

pushed down the spout, you should hear the ball move against its seat when you

squeeze the water pump hose and there should be no flow of coolant to the

header if its seating correctly.

 

[Rob Walker]

I have run with and with out the ball,the cooling system seems to function well in both cases. What you should bear in mind is that removal of the ball will result in a constant flow of coolant back to the top of the expasion bottle and this coolant should in fact be going through the head so removal of the ball must reduce the efficiency of the cooling system slightly. How much is the question it certainly is no advantage apart from releasing any trapped air. The expansion of coolant is another issue this is taken care of with the big pipe exiting the expasion tank underneath, this both tops up the system and allows for any expansion. So boys and girls free of your balls don`t drill um out it could be painfull.