overflow bottle and battery mounting options?

[C10CONFUSED87]

Hi all, I have 82 C10 with a 5.3 installed. Was wondering if anybody could advice me on remounting my overflow tank and battery box. The radiator overflow bottle was bolted to the left side wheel well. I removed the wheel well and now don't have a place that I can mount the bottle. This is do to the hoses that are coming from it are to short and the are bent ones also. The battery box also was sitting on the right wheel well and I removed that also. The battery box ant support the weight of the altima battery. Please ideas from you all would be appreciated.

[zieg85]

Throughout the 81-87 years the bottles have been mounted in a number of different places.  My 84 is mounted to the core support under the battery.  My 86 is mounted on the top of the wheel well.  I take them off the trucks I part out and have a few different styles but no 84 which is what I am in need of. 

[zieg85]

1985's and 87's are mounted on top of the inner fender well, I just checked.  So 85-87 appear to be the same

[C10CONFUSED87]

Thanks for the quick response. The issues with the one I have is that it belongs to a 5.3 engine. So I don't have the ability to install them where they need to go. Needing some people to chin in that have installed one before that belonged to a 5.3 swap.

[timthescarrd]

Haven't done the swap so I can't really make any suggestions, but I've seen everything from beer and whiskey bottles to aluminum cans used as overflow tanks, cuz it really is just a tank, you can put it pretty much wherever you can find the space

[C10CONFUSED87]

Thanks for the responses. Really would like to still use the overflow tank that came with the swap. I am guessing that it belonged to the 5.3 engine. Please if anybody has pictures of people mounting a 5.3 overflow tank somewhere, please let me know.

[LTZ C20]

Thanks for the responses. Really would like to still use the overflow tank that came with the swap. I am guessing that it belonged to the 5.3 engine. Please if anybody has pictures of people mounting a 5.3 overflow tank somewhere, please let me know.

Is this a 5.3 Vortec LS series engine? If so, it will be more beneficial to use the 5.3 overflow bottle like you want, this is because it has the radiator cap built into it because the bottle is under pressure like the rest of the cooling system. It is not a simple purge type overflow like the systems that came in these trucks orginally. The LS engines have a large hose connecting the overflow directly to the engines coolant flow. It should be easy to just bolt it to the inner fender like it was done on the LS from the factory.

[C10CONFUSED87]

LTZ,
Thanks for the response. I believe it is the LS, but how do I make sure it is? Also looks like the bottle is a pressurized one also. Has the bigger hose coming from the engine to the bottom of the tank.

[LTZ C20]

What vehicle did the engine come out of? But based on what you said, that is how an LS series over flow looks. This is a typical LS overflow tank, does yours look like it or similar?



Does your 5.3 look more or less basically like this? If so, it is an LS engine.

[C10CONFUSED87]

Ltz,
That is exactly like my engine and bottle looks like. The issue I am having now is after removing the wheel wells do to wheels rubbing after dropping the C10. I no longer have the original mounting locations for both the bottle and battery. Do you by any chance have any options? Or may you possibly have a solution to my rubbing of my wheels in the front? They rub hard also, even catch to the point the truck stops. This is only during turning, really bad on a 90 degree turn. Thanks for the info also, appreciate your help.

[LTZ C20]

I don't have a solution to your rubbing concern, tho I may have an idea for a tank mount. That tank, as you can see on yours, has 2 mounting points on either side and in the middle towards one end there is a "foot" I believe that it rests on when bolted to the fender.

What if you took say a 1/4 inch length of bar stock steel. Cut it to 2 equal lengths, bend it at a 90 degree anlge, so you have 2 right angle pieces of steel. Then drill a hole in 1 end of each piece and use those to bolt the bottle too. Then use the other ends of the brackets and drill 2 holes in each, for use as bolt holes. So then you use those now 4 bolt holes to bolt it to the radiator support. Then you can use another piece of steel, bent the same, with 2 mounting holes for radiator support, the end that goes under the bottle would be longer so that the middle "foot" has a place to rest and support weight.

Basically, you would be making 3 simple, non-obtrusive brackets told hold the bottle. When mounted it would appear to just float in mid air. Even you have room, you could even mount it to the inner fender so it just hangs over the front tire, as long as the tire won't hit it and rip it off and create a giant coolant spill.

Does any of that make sense??

[LTZ C20]

Ok, ignore the fact that the quality of this drawing is total crap, I made it on my phone but it should make what I'm saying easier to understand.

[C10CONFUSED87]

Picture really helped. Will try to do this. Hopefully I will get it done this weekend.

[LTZ C20]

I hope it made sense. I figured it was either gonna make complete sense or I was gonna confuse the crap out of you.