Great Post Kaz

Can you describe in detail how you joined / connected the hose extension to the existing hose that starts under the degas bottle just ends in the middle of the radiator?

 

Sure Grock87 , you did say in detail ...that hose that comes out of the bottom of the degas bottle is just what you see ,
a textured plastic tube , I expected a tiny rubber hose , cover by this plastic to protect the hose from chaffing ,
but no, it is just that plastic textured tube , it is attached at 2 places to the plastic shroud , little tie-wraps hooked to a plastic pin
in a hole into the plastic shroud , I reached down there at the lowest location and pulled out the plastic pin from the shroud , just
grunt a little , squeeze the tube and tie-wrap and pull , then I looked at the end of that dead-end tube , and the last quarter inch is
not textured like the lenght of the tube , it is round flat tube , ( just for a quarter inch long ) ,, I should have taken a picture of this , but I didn't ,
it is just long enough to get a tight fit into a rubber tube I already had in my treasure chest of parts , collected in 40 years of tinkering around cars .
I could have picked clear gasoline hose , just found the right size rubber Inside diameter to fit tight over truck's tube .

after uniting the 2 hoses and coming to the conclusion I did not need to add a clamp , because it held on strong enough , and the fact that nothing flows
in that tube until you eventually get a leak , I lined it up downwards towards the frame looking from the top , when I rolled Under the truck i could see
my new tube , I made sure there would not be any horizontal part of the tube in its routing , just straight down , then decided where to put the Mayo Jar
nice piece of frame right there close to the tow hook , no metal plate protruding there that could eventually put a hole in the jar by rubbing and vibrations.
drilled a hole just a little bigger than my treasure chest rubber hose into the plastic cover of the mayo jar , drilled off-center , not in the middle , put the cap
on the jar , slide the tube in to measure the lenght , my tube was too long , i wanted it to end +/- 1 inch from the bottom of the jar .
added tie-wraps long enough to go into holes of the frame and around the Mayo jar , Done .

Edit : just replaced my degas bottle with a new Dorman
just for esthetic reason while doing the 10 year coolant swap ,
so I am adding a picture of the end of the wire loom tube , looks like 1/4 tube ,

 

So the $64,000 question, have you captured any coolant in the mayo jar?

 

The answer is : NO ,, PM ME AND i'LL TELL YOU WHO TO MAKE THE $64,000 CHEQUE FOR ..
EDIT : yes , it has some coolant at the bottom not much but better there than all over the engine bay
I can monitor the Mayo jar just looking from the front of driver side tire , i see some red liquid at bottom
maybe 1/4 inch slowly drying up , if I am pig headed and try to keep level in degas bottle at full it spits out
keeping it at the seem in the tank and no spitting
..
my truck is still like new , no problem so far , Knock on wood .
the coolant dropped 1/2 inch when 2 years old , I added some 50/50 and it did not move again .

 

I plan on doing this and I'll report back. At my speed, hopefully I'll get to it in the next year.

 

you are not a big Mayo eater then ...

 

I pulled the clips off the radiator shroud that hold the overflow hose in place. Then sat a 20 oz water bottle down in the area to the left of the radiator and zip tied it to the a/c line right there. I then drilled the cap in the water bottle just bigger than the hose then stuck the hose in the bottle. At this point I haven't gotten any coolant in the bottle, but I haven't loaded the engine at all.
I have one more part I'm waiting on and then I will install a pressure gauge in the cooling system. I'll be able to watch pressure and see for sure what is going on. For example, if the pressure steadily rises with coolant temp and then drops off before ever hitting 21 psi, then I know the cap isn't holding pressure. Or if I see coolant pressure rise rapidly with boost pressure I know I have exhaust gases (EGR) or combustion gasses (head gasket) leaking into the coolant.

Not sure what, if anything else would cause fluid loss through the overflow tube.

 

UNSTUCK , ..
EGR cooler pushing exhaust pressure towards the degas bottle Theory .
..
post 39 in here : https://www.ram1500diesel.com/forum....com/forum/ram-1500-diesel-mechanical/51786-2016-ed-still-losing-coolant-2.html

 

Finally installed a pressure gauge in the cooling system. I also rented a pressure tester from Autozone last night to play with. While driving on the freeway last night my coolant temps got up to 203 degrees. At that time the pressure reading was only 9 PSI. I accelerated hard on an uphill onramp and watched the pressure instantly jump 2-3 PSI. As I got up to speed, that pressure dropped back down into the 7-9 PSI range. I think that increase in pressure was just from the water pump speeding up. I did not see the BIG jump in pressure I was expecting from an EGR or HG leak. I was also a bit surprised the system pressure stayed so low. I need to put a trailer on the truck and see what happens.

I also put the pressure tester on the degas cap. I can watch it start to open at about 20 PSI. It holds pressure at 19 PSI. I decided I don't have a cap issue.

I'm having a hard time testing the system at pressure as the gauge slowly leaks. So that wont give me accuracy.

Any thoughts?

 

this is awesome. deffinately doing this. thank you