hello everyone well last night i was playing in the snow a little and i had about 5 miles to home and about halfway there me jeep decided to blow the cap off of my pressurized recovery tank or whatever that thing is. The biggest problem is it is a new plastic one and it seemed to mess up the threads on it. Well anyway i didnt really notice that there was trouble until the heat quit and the guage went to about 250 but not in the red zone. When i got home i had to put about 2 1/2 gallons in it so it was empty. Anyhow i will get to the point i dont think i had caused any major engine damage but i was wondering if i could eliminate the pressure tank and just put in a regular overflow bottle i put in a new rad with the cap option. Where would i find a factory tank and would i need a new heater control valve? any help would be appriciated

 

what year etc??

 

its an 89 4.0L auto

 

Well, the expansion tank on that closed system could have been overpressure by a bad head gasket or a faulty thermostat, do you have milky colored oil? That could be a sign of a bad gasket , exhaust gas gets into the coolant system over pressurizing it. Or the thermostat is stuck closed, but typically they fail open.

 

Well the head was replaced last fall so the gaskets are new and were properly torqued but the old coolant tank was cracked from age so i replaced it from an online parts source that was made in china. Earlier that day i had checked the coolant but drove it for about 100 miles and everyrhing worked fine. It was almost warmed up when i played in the snow which involved a 50 or so second burst at wide open throttle and only after about 3 miles i noticed the temp guage at about 250. the oil nice and brown colored and the old cap off the old tank seemed to work good today after another snow wheeling incident on the way to work this morning. I heard somone mention a while back somthing about an aluminum tank? if you know about that please let me know thanks