Well I put two 17 mile trips on her yesterday, AC on, in 85 F very humid weather, in stop and go freeway traffic at 5pm on the return trip. I got her up to 200 F peak coolant temp when I shut off the AC and parked it at idle for 10 minutes after the drive, but it was running cooler since I put the clamp on the bottle cap and she stayed at 190 F with the AC on (it trips the E fan). The radiator hose is also considerably firmer, rock hard in fact. No gas leaking noises at the botle cap even after turning off the engine.
I received a new Crown brand bottle today and it looks and feels just like the other bottle I am having troubling with, except the new bottle cap holds on and the 2 used bottle caps do not hold on ( read, I can turn the cap tighter until it pops off the bottle!!!) even on the new bottle.
Note, the Crown bottle I just received has poor quality threads on the bottle (something new to me), looked like they used a dull threading tool, and it has noticably rough, not sharp, threads. The new bottle and cap CAN NOT be tightened enough to pop the cap off,:clap: but then again the bottle I bought and installed 8 weeks ago was the same before it got heat cycled.
Ecomike's new theory!
There were rumors of bad caps last year. I am now wondering if the real problem is that the bottle caps are changing the first time they are heat cycled in use, and that they then grow just enough to where they no longer fit properly (read, they pop off if you really tighten them snuggly, and leak if you don't tighten them)?????? Perhaps having the hood weigh down on the bottle cap contributes the cap reshaping too!!!! Up to know I have considered the hood setting on the bottle cap a nice safety feature (LOL), but I do have lower the support bracket on my infinate things to do list.
So far Mud8's answer of using a 2" worm gear hose clamp seems to have solved my bad cap problem.
Muad'Dib, waiting to hear how your Crown bottle holds up this summer.