Hi, my surge tank on my 98 ford taurus as a small pin size hole on the side, thus allowing anti freeze/water to spew out when the engine is running. I have a bought a new one but can not have it installed till this Sat. I am making sure to keep water in the jug and only driving to work and back. Would it help or even work to put some duct tape over the hole so it would slow down the loss of fluid until the new one is installed.
Since it’s under pressure, I doubt tape would hold. How about a sheet-metal screw?
And, since this is apparently the OP’s notorious Taurus with a blown head gasket, the pressure in the cooling system is likely to be VERY high. I seriously doubt if duct tape would hold under those conditions.
Nice catch VDC.
I agree with both of you. Only Red Green would patch a cooling system with duct tape.
I agree with texases. A sheet metal screw, preferably with some epoxy, is a far better alternative.
You could also scuff this area up with sandpaper and epoxy a penny over it, assuming the area is flat. This would require letting the car sit unused at least overnight so the epoxy would set up thoroughly.
I think there is supposed to be a pressure relief valve on the surge tank so the pressure shouldn’t be too high. But who knows if it is working.
I have no idea about 98 Tauri, but on many cars, replacing a surge/overflow tank is hardly rocket science. I’ve owned cars where one had to take the tank most of the way out in order to replace a battery. Remove a couple of bolts. Slide a hose clamp loose. Pull the old tank out. Put the new one in. Reconnect the hose. Reinsert the bolts. Clean up the mess (remembering that the coolant may be toxic to animals). Throw a couple of cups of water into the new tank (yeah, the coolant mix might end up off a couple of percent from optimum. This doesn’t sound like a precision driving machine.) Might need $15 worth of tools from Cheap-East-Asian-Junk-R-Us to do the job.
It may be almost as easy to replace the tank as to try to patch the hole.
In any case, I think it is unlikely that the adhesive in Duct Tape applied to the outside of the tank will stand up to hot coolant under pressure. But I’m wrong sometimes. If one is determined to patch the hole and duct tape won’t do the job, it might be best to do it from the inside of the tank using any sort of self setting goo one can find that will stick to the tank when submerged in coolant. Maybe JB-Weld will work. The self-tapping screw that texases suggested might work.
A couple of times, I’ve had a coolant leak that I had to wait a day or three for parts, but needed to keep driving the car. I patched the leak as best I could, and then I left the cap on the degas tank loose so that pressure would not build up. It worked for me and the coolant didn’t boil over even with the reduced pressure, however neither time was in the middle of summer.
I guess plug was the wrong word, my goal is just to reduce the flow of water out till Saturday when the new one is installed. I do believe a basic mechanic can do this and had they not installed the 3 nutt in such a way that it will take paitence and harry houdine to get to it, I could do it, but since they did, I will leave it to proffesionals to replace it. I am figuring by taping up the side while not stopping the leak may reduce the amount loss in my short drives till Saturday.