Thread: what aluminium to use for car radiator expansion tank?

want to build an aluminium expansion tank for car for radiator coolant overflow.
what is the type of aluminium i would use for this? 5005, 5052 or 5083 or something else??

Just curious. What's wrong with the one the car manufacturer fitted? Plastic parts can deteriorate, but if the existing one has gone past its use-by date it might be simplest to buy a new one, and easier to fit.

Originally Posted by ErrolFlynn

Just curious. What's wrong with the one the car manufacturer fitted? Plastic parts can deteriorate, but if the existing one has gone past its use-by date it might be simplest to buy a new one, and easier to fit.

its actually for a supercharger tank, as some people may not know what this is i went with what everyone knows.
takes same coolant, no pressure, just not wanting to pay $1000 for one i can build myself to fit where I want for less than a quarter of that.

It may come down to what's more readily available and easily obtained - I just checked the Edcon website and they've got 5005 in sheets, in fact all they've got in sheet is 5005 - corrosion resistance in marine application is listed as one of it's prime characteristics.

i have available to me up here at the moment of 5005, 5052 or 5083

An easy/nice way to make a small Al tank is to use a section of large Al tube.
This is the auxiliary oil tank on one of my chainsaw mills. It's made from 100mm ID x 3 mm thick Al tube and holds about 1.2L.
The trickiest bit is finding a suitable off-cut without having to buy a length of tubing.
Luckily I have an Al welding BIL who grabs these for me.

Aux_oil1.jpg Aux_oil_tank.jpg

This tank holds the used coffee pucks from my coffee machine - this is made from 150 mm ID x 5mm thickness (yea overkill I know) tube.
Knockbox.jpg

mine needs to be custom and weird ass shape to hold around 10L

Any of those will get the job done, if the 83 isn’t carrying too much of price penalty over the others use that, it’s a bit higher strength

Originally Posted by racingtadpole

Any of those will get the job done, if the 83 isn’t carrying too much of price penalty over the others use that, it’s a bit higher strength

was looking at that one, $300 for a 2400x1200 sheet of it.

$300 I’m guessing is for 3mm
I would normally be looking at 1.2 or 1.6 for a header tank that isn’t under pressure. Depends on how proficiently you are at welding thinner sheet
Water injection on a methanol engine?

Originally Posted by racingtadpole

$300 I’m guessing is for 3mm
I would normally be looking at 1.2 or 1.6 for a header tank that isn’t under pressure. Depends on how proficiently you are at welding thinner sheet
Water injection on a methanol engine?

yeah 3mm, prefer thicker over thinner and been a while since i tigged.
no, reservoir for supercharger