Moroso Aluminum Expansion Tank

[STAATS]

And the crowd said "YEAH!" Thanks for the update STAATS.

Haha no probs man... its kinda stupid they don't offer it at least as an option in place of the sight glass considering they have the part and it'd be the same amount of work... No I have done it all and proved it works someone should definately give them a nudge to replace the sight glass with their level sensor or offer it as an option sight glass or sensor... or I guess you could push them to do it the way I did and have both but I imagine thatd pump the price up a bit.

[STAATS]

Another update to try help make sure people don't make the same stupid mistake as me haha. I stupidly (well I guess not stupidly as there is precedent for the thought process) thought that because the Moroso sensor was plastic and the sensor bung was aluminium that this would directly seal as is... but after a few days I noticed small puddles of coolant below my car and saw a tiny leak at the bottom of the sensor... So I have pulled it out and re-made the joint with thread tape as is usually the standard for NPT fittings (although normally its to provide a soft seal so normally when you have a plastic thread it kinda does the job of thread tape)... Anyway I chose to use a rated Gas pipe PTFE tape as i like using things that have to meet a standard vs standard run of the mill thread tape... but i will see how it goes just to make sure it actually wasnt another issue... but I am 99.9% sure I just needed to seal the threads correctly so for those of you playing at home... thread tape!

[Feffman]

My Moroso coolant tank is in. Ran the car up to temp last night and the coolant level sensor leaked. STAATS reminded me to wind the coolant sensor threads 3-7 times with PTFE tape instead of the single loop I did. All fixed now with no leak.

Feff

[STAATS]

Awesome mate - that's two of us that now have an aluminium expansion tank without any downsides yew.

I probably should have confirmed in my last post that thread tape should be applied 3-7 loops against the rotation of the thread to work effectively so sorry you had to chase me up separately for that clarification.

Who else is going to jump on the band wagon now? haha

My next Coolant elated project is to add a coolant drain line off the black coolant drain port... I saw someone else do that on either ere or M3Cutters and thin thats genius... He just used an AN cap but, I want to try setup an AN valve panel mounted then with a cap... just havent found an appropriate place yet... and have other more important jobs like a custom tune and Cobra Nogaros to look at next haha

[EnzoAtMonza]

I finished mine in a wrinkle black, haven't filled the system yet but looks good to me.

[STAATS]

Nice setup. The use of AN line looks neat. Also like the headlight washer tank... you're the only other person I've seen use that Chase Bays tank haha. How have you dealt with the slightly lower pressure eon the headlight washer? Apparently rental we need to reduce our line size near the sprayers to get stock pressure... I havent bothered as its good enough but if someone finds an easy way then ill copy haha

[EnzoAtMonza]

I haven't filled it yet unfortunately but have the smaller hose on hand. Had to relocate due to my brake ducts, picked up a set of kevar ducts from the Turner gs car from back in the day. They are a little on the large size so compromises are being made.

Jeff

[usdmej]

I finished mine in a wrinkle black, haven't filled the system yet but looks good to me.

curious when switching to the chase bays washer tank if you simply left your washer fluid level sensor unplugged? if so, did it throw any dash lights?

[STAATS]

curious when switching to the chase bays washer tank if you simply left your washer fluid level sensor unplugged? if so, did it throw any dash lights?

I just shorted the wires on that so no dash light... I do eventually intend to try come up with a sensor setup so I can have it working again... but its no where near as important as the Coolant one was...

[EnzoAtMonza]

I have done the same just shorted wires but I do have the morroso sensor I was going to try at some point.

[sapote]

Well just completed the first test - so the sensor reacts as expected. When the float opens the switch the dash displays the coolant level warning light. When the float closes the switch the dash coolant level warning light clears. There is a ~15sec delay between changing from open/close status to the dash reacting with the appropriate warning light or clearing of warning light.

So I can confirm this switch will successfully integrate with the stock wiring and dash system. Good start.

1) Anyone know if the stock level switch also has the same 15sec delay from switch to the display? I think the delay is the result of the DME low pass filter software process to avoid rough riding causing fault triggering.

2) the aluminum tank is bullet proof, but the plastic level sensor is the new weak link. Does it use an exposed micro switch (wet in coolant) or a kind of sealed switch? Sealing the metal parts of the switch or the wires from leaking along the plastic molding is not easy as it aged. Plastic don't bond well to metal for a good seal under many heat cycles and pressurized coolant. Time will tell.

3) Why couldn't they use the stock bottom non-contact level sensor? Magnetic field will work through aluminum.

[sapote]

I think the reason that non-M cars have more ruptured tanks is that people didn't bleed it properly leading to localized boiling around exhaust valves, which created a lot of gas and high pressure ruptured the tank; the soft aluminum block threads and the bleeding problem combined causing combustion gas leaked into coolant system, then ruptured tank; these engines run hotter than M3. The 2 bar relief cap might not work fast enough for this case.

[STAATS]

1) Anyone know if the stock level switch also has the same 15sec delay from switch to the display? I think the delay is the result of the DME low pass filter software process to avoid rough riding causing fault triggering.

2) the aluminum tank is bullet proof, but the plastic level sensor is the new weak link. Does it use an exposed micro switch (wet in coolant) or a kind of sealed switch? Sealing the metal parts of the switch or the wires from leaking along the plastic molding is not easy as it aged. Plastic don't bond well to metal for a good seal under many heat cycles and pressurized coolant. Time will tell.

3) Why couldn't they use the stock bottom non-contact level sensor? Magnetic field will work through aluminum.

1) the 15sec delay is in the DME so yes using the aftermarket sensor still has the 15sec delay

2) agreed the sensor is now the weak point. it is a sealed magnetic switch. if it fails and triggers a light you can just plug the sensor bung until you get a new one... vs if you have stock tank and you need to replace the whole thing... i am not particularly concerned about the sensor being some kind of weak point now, my concern and reason for going to ally tank was to avoid a catastrophic split and sudden loss of coolant, the failure mode of the sensor to leak should be slower and picked up by the sensor itself... I mean its not like we have entirely bulletproofed the system, there is still rubber houses with plastic fittings so...

3) there is nothing stopping you from using the stock bottom non-contact level sensor aside from install complexity. The sensor we used was easy to install and integrate and replace in future if needed. The stock switch has a weird connection I am not sure how to modify the tank to suit that sensor... otherwise I would have....

[ZHPizza]

3) Why couldn't they use the stock bottom non-contact level sensor? Magnetic field will work through aluminum.

Answering this one because I recently got trained on capacitive sensors. In order to work through a tank wall, the media has to have a higher dielectric constant than the tank material (works great for detecting water in a plastic tank). All metals essentially have an infinite dielectric constant so capacitive sensors will not work with any sort of metal tank.

[sapote]

Answering this one because I recently got trained on capacitive sensors. In order to work through a tank wall, the media has to have a higher dielectric constant than the tank material (works great for detecting water in a plastic tank). All metals essentially have an infinite dielectric constant so capacitive sensors will not work with any sort of metal tank.

I believe the stock level sensor is just a Reed relay that has a mechanical contact closed or opened based on the present of the magnetic field. There is a magnet ring on the tank level popper to trigger the Reed relay. It's not a capacitive sensor.