Overflow bottle hole. Help!

[barnesjtsl]

1979 spider 2000 (carburetor).

I'm 32 miles from home. My overflow bottle has a hole in it the size of a nickle on the side toward the bottom facing the exhaust manifold.

Is it possible to plug the hose from the radiator and drive it home 32 miles without causing major problems?

Also. Is it possible to find these bottles anywhere? If not can anyone suggest an alternative?

Thanks,

John.

[seabeelt]

yes you can plug the hole, The radiator gets hot and pushes excess coolant into the bottle. Hwn the engine and radioator cool down it draws the coolant back in. I have a couple. Email me at init4fun@earthlink.net and send me your info
r/
Michael

[barnesjtsl]

I understand I can plug the hole. Can I plug the hose and drive it 32 miles home that way without screwing something up? I was just going to pinch the end with a pair of vise grips and wire it to the sidewall for the ride home.

I have a possible bottle here in Portland, if that falls through I will get you my info.

Thanks for the reply.

jb

[Razooli]

I understand I can plug the hole. Can I plug the hose and drive it 32 miles home that way without screwing something up? I was just going to pinch the end with a pair of vise grips and wire it to the sidewall for the ride home.

Don't pinch off the hose .. Wire it so excess coolant will drain down onto the road when the rad heats up and the coolant expands. the tank doesn't come into play until the car cools down, the coolant in the radiator contracts and creates a vacuum which pulls in coolant from the expansion tank. i assume you'll drive the 32 miles in one shot so after you get home just let it cool and put in the new tank and top off the radiator. you can still drive it without the tank... Just top off the radiator each time it cools down before you drive it again.

[barnesjtsl]

Thanks guys. I am picking up the tank this afternoon and installing tonight.

John

[MIGHTY 8]

I drove around for years without an expansion resovoir. It can be done, and as long as you keep an eye in the temp gauge (which we all probably do anyway!) you should be fine.
But don't procrastinate like me, and get one replaced ASAP. Making sure it always has some amount of coolant in it goes along way in preventing it from melting.
Just my .02 $

[htchevyii]

Really, a hose stuck into the bottom of a 1liter bottle would work just as good in a pinch, but like was already said until the rig is parked and cools off sucking a bit of air in there would probably not be any issues.

[CajunMike]

Is your heat shield over the manifold? If not put it back on or find a replacement shield.