I was thinking about adding a coolant filter the bronco 351 W since everything , but , the HC is new. There is a pipe plug in the top of my thermostat housing that looks like 3/8". I was going to tap into it and possibly into the line going from the fill cap to the degas bottle. Would this work? The overflow tank on my cooling system doesnt have a radiator cap style lid on it. So would it just pump coolant into the bottle until overflows or would it cycle back into the radiator?
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First, welcome back Bruno! Hope you are well.

Second, I don't think that will work. The coolant recovery system on these trucks isn't within the pressurized part of the system, but where you are talking about getting the coolant from is. So, you'd pump a lot of coolant into the recovery container and it would overflow very quickly.

The way the recovery system works is that when the coolant expands such that there isn't room for all of it the valve in the radiator cap opens and allows coolant to flow into the recovery container. As the system cools and the coolant contracts a vacuum is created and a little check valve in the cap opens and coolant from the recovery container flows back in.

To do what you want to do you could put the filter in one of the heater hoses or in a radiator hose - depending on the size of the fittings and the amount of flow the filter will handle. Probably one of the heater hoses.

 

The usual placement for a coolant filter is in the supply side of the heater line.

 

I was thinking about using the supply hose to the heatercore instead like you mentioned. The waterpump sucks coolant. So I suppose if I use the port on the water inlet I will have to use the heater hose on the waterpump and not the one on the manifold. Does sound correct?

In other words, what is that port on the inlet doing drawing or pushing?

 

Generic Napa filter head, some fittings, and a Napa 4070 coolant filter in a heater hose.

Other option is to install it in place of the tstat bypass hose. Extra hose under the hood though...

 

The water pump does not "suck" coolant, it simply pushes it towards the engine.
The supply line to the heater would be the one coming off the intake. Besides, you would want the filter ahead of the heater core, or half of the stuff the filter would normally catch, will end up at the bottom of the heater core......

 

Most coolant filters are set up in a bypass situation. This way becomes obstructed it can never damage or inhibit one portion of the cooling system. IOW you dont want it to keep the water from circulating through the engine, nor do you want it to keep your heater from blowing hot in the winter.

I suppose I could use the auxilary port on the inlet and tee it into the manifold heater hose. The tee fitting would have to be on the supply side of the filter base and the auxilary port would have to be on the outgoing side of the filter base.

 

Having the heater go cold would be good indication that you have a problem. I don't see any problem with that, unless you think you have a LOT of junk in the engine.

 

The great thing about coolant filters is once the most of garbage is out, they last a long time.

The first one should plug up in 2k miles or less, the second one should last 5-7k, then 15k on the third.

So long as the coolant is good, ie: changed regularly, there should not be further accumulation of garbage.

The coolant filter on my diesel has been there 2 years or so. Before I rebuilt it, the filters were lasting over 60k miles and still not plugged.

I used to see a coolant filter that used both the heater hoses and bypassed a little through the filter. That would still allow heat even if the filter were clogged. Dieselsite.com used to have it.