Vanagon Reservoir Bottle Exploded In Two Right At the Seam

[altermod]

Ok I was driving home on the freeway lastnight and my 2 month old ebay purchase coolant reservoir bottle exploded in half right across the seam? Has this happened to anyone?

I had pressure tested the cap a few weeks ago and it opened at 16psi.
The engine is a subaru ej22 1990.

I'm suspecting either very defective reservoir bottle. Or possibly a bad head gasket leak maybe? But I would have guessed the cap would have relieved the pressure unless something leaked pretty fast? Has anyone seen this happen to these new ebay reservoir tanks?

I heard the loud pop and knew something was wrong. The engine kept going without a hiccup but I had to drive about a 1/4 mile to an exit and shut the engine off as I was coast thru the offramp and glided to a parking lot. Lots of radiator steam coming out the vents but the engine didn't seem too hot and might have survived without much damage (fingers crossed). I got towed home by AAA and was assesing the damage today. Haven't started the engine yet tho (obv would only run it for 30 seconds to check).

[E1]

If you can suck in on the cap nipple, there’s no way a cap caused this. The VW-used blue caps open at 14.5, which it appears you have… 16 would be too high if so… I cannot speak to what’s the popoff pressure with anything else.

Aftermarket expansion tank is my guess. Real parts are always worth it and sold by the dedicated suppliers supporting our vans.

We had an aftermarket tank leak slightly within a year, after a lot of high-coolant-pressure drives. Nothing like this.

Crap is cheap for a reason. In that short time, I doubt you hurt the engine — but other inexpensive parts, maybe.

Welcome to the Busylum, you entered the hard way.
_________________
If ever twice as rich, we’re gettin’ a double-wide
’84 “Westfailure”/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s

AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans
The caveman’s first question to the headhunter: “Hey, you got any coffee?”

[altermod]

I'm suspecting cheap tank. Its a blau blue cap. I'm going off the top of my head regarding the psi when I tested it. Only other thing I can think is the pressure from a leaking head gasket could come of too fast and maybe overwhelm the releasing of the cap? But thats a bit too much of a stretch. The safer bet is crap aftermarket reservoir bottle. It was so catastrophic tho. I searched the web and couldn't find any photo of a vw reservoir tank that literally exploded.

[do.dah]

What kinda thing do you have going on with the plumbing for that tank? That looks really,, janky?

OEM, even old, is mucho better. But, nowadays, most are replacing with metal tanks made by a coupla've our fine suppliers..

[shagginwagon83]

Like do.dah recommends - buy it for life upgrade https://vancafe.com/van-cafe-aluminum-coolant-expansion-tank/
_________________
"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin

[E1]

[altermod]

Yeah tested using a bicycle pump that I connected on to that bleed hose valve. That part came from Kennedy. Everything has been running like clockwork for the past 8 years until the prior cap and bottle leaked. I made the bad call of buying the cheap ebay bottle. Bad move. I think I'm gonna look into the RMW alu tank.

[altermod]

Ok dang, the expansion tank was full of coolant. So the pressure cap did release fluid so there definitely is a blown head gasket leak. The reservoir bottle failed and wasn't totally at fault since most likely the blown head gasket was the culprit. I has been kinda suspecting this. Sure its possible an original bottle might not have blown. Its possible thats why the prior coolant tank/cap (which was old) failed. I'm still gonna go alu tank.

[E1]

That may be a premature assumption — though a valid one.

Ironically, I’m soon to do a combustion gas test, and that’s possibly your best next step as well — once you have a tank.
_________________
If ever twice as rich, we’re gettin’ a double-wide
’84 “Westfailure”/2.1 Digijet/5.43 Ring & Pinion/Peloquin/D-rated BFG KO2s

AI has spoken to further illiteracy, to steal, to cheat, and to replace humans
The caveman’s first question to the headhunter: “Hey, you got any coffee?”

[wesitarz]

[altermod]

[vanis13]

[altermod]

[vanis13]

[altermod]

I have a bleeder at the front radiator that I use to purge air to a jug of coolant I place at the top of the van. Also the t fitting on the bottle is placed above the coolant hose so I figure all the passing air bubbles would escape into the tank. I've definitely purged the van of air over several days of re bleeding at the radiator. I was already suspecting a minor head gasket leak into the coolant. I should have put subaru conditioner in sooner to possibly mitigate/resolve the issue but that would be a patch job. I think my time was ultimately running out of time needing to rebuild the engine. 8 years was a good run on a junk yard pulled engine. These subarus are definitely run harder than originally intended too.

[vanis13]

[bobbyblack]

[altermod]

[Van den Broke]

I've also got a Subaru EJ engine in my Vanagon, and it also had the stock Vanagon expansion tank dead headed.

Since it wasn't functioning as originally intended I concluded that it was simply a vestigious liability, so I deleted it.

Discussion of the process, and the reasoning pro and con is in this thread:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

[wesitarz]

My OE expansion tank lasted through a bad WBX 2.1 head gasket belching coolant out the overflow. Then a trip from BC to California overheating and belching all the after a shop misdiagnosed it as bad water pump. I think the seams are the weak point as they are welded together. The OE tank is still going strong after 22 years with a Subaru ( never overheated) I had a Febi tank from German auto parts as a spare.