coolant overflow

Can anyone tell me whether or not a 1968 Ford came with a coolant overflow bottle. Pictures if you have them please. Anybody bother adding one if your car didn't come with one?

-Mike

 

I don't think that it did but I am sure that I will be corrected otherwise. My '67 didn't and rather go with the soda can or gatorade bottle like I have seen on some cars I am looking at an aftermarket aluminum one and get it powder coated flat black to blend in.

 

I think you're correct that my car didn't come with one. I've seen plenty of whiskey bottles and such used a overflows, but like you I'd rather have something a little more substantial and maybe stock in appearance. I think I'm going to try to fab something up and make it not just an overflow, but a recovery tank. Thanks for the reply.

 

There are dozens of various sizes of nice looking aluminum recover/overflow tanks on the market. Check most auto parts stores and speedshop magazines. Or pick a plastic one up at a junk yard from a wrecked car, maybe even one of those modern fancy tanks.
I'd think that Ford might have had a factory overflow bottle/tank.
Still a whiskey bottle might be more fun! After emptying it you won't even care if it looks out of place under the hood.
PS don't drive until the next day.

 

I think Cat is onto something there.
I remember seeing Cadillacs from the '60s with glass quart jars for overflow.
Or maybe it was for the windshield washer.
I was just a little kid at the time.
A Mason jar sure beats Fords old vinyl WSW colostomy bags!
Sorry to drift off topic.
I'll bet your overflow vented to the road.
Nobody thought about ethylene glycol being poisonous way back then.
Plus it was cheap.
Just get a (slightly) later model plastic tank, or a universal tank, and drive on.

 

PineBox----I was just a little kid at the time.


Me too. But I have a pornographic memory!

 

I'll have to take your word for it...my '63 Falcon did not have a windshield washer.

I don't believe the recovery tank was standard equipment on a '68 Ford. Were it my decision, I'd get an aluminum aftermarket one. Whiskey bottles repurposed for that use look out of place in anything that's not a rat-rod.

 

You might be remembering the odd shaped glass bottle of windshield washer fluid some GM cars had in a bracket under the hood back in the 60's? I think the bottle held the concentrate to use in the WSW tank?

 

I would think that you could get the overflow from a late 70s Mid- or full-sized Ford or Mercury, including the bracket, and make it look very much a factory install, since the rad support is almost identical.

 

I always thought this was cool - Ford's big V8's around '62-'64 had this metal overflow tank right on top in front of the engine....

 

That isn't an overflow tank.
Thats the actual radiator top tank!
It was moved from the usual location on top of the radiator to allow for a lower hood. There is no tank on the top of the radiator.
I can't believe I knew something KK didn't know.
(Just this once)

 

That's called a surge tank, needed when the top of the radiator is lower than the top of the engine.
I guess it could be called a remote top tank?