354 Jinma Coolant Reservoir

[quikduk]

I wanted to make a coolant reservoir (burp tank) similar to cars/trucks. I liked the one from Napa that was detailed on John's Jinma website. I just couldn't duplicate his mounting location. My 354 never “burped” any coolant out but I wanted to prevent it escaping and a dog or other animal licking it up and dying.

After much head scratching and scrounging of the garage for metal, this is what I came up with. The bolts are all 6.0mm x 1.0mm pitch, the same as the factory. I bought the tank at Napa for around $10 and the Tygon tubing from Lowes for $4.



The bracket bolts into the existing radiator shroud threaded holes.

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Here are the final installed shots. All that is left, per Jake, is to add matching red coolant.



I also made these for Larry G., Tim and Frank. I hope they haven’t fallen apart yet guys. I think Larry’s shroud was different but he just relocated the holes and all was good.

[quikduk]

Here are the materials and directions needed if you want to make one for yourselves.

Materials needed:

24” - 1”x1”x1/8” wall square steel tubing
1 - 14-3/4” long with one end cut at 45 degrees
1 - 5-5/8” long
1 – 2-3/4” long

12” - 1”x1/8” flat steel bar
1 - 6-1/2” long
1 - 1-1/8” long
3 - 1” long

24” - 5/16” I.D. Tygon (clear) tubing

3 - 6mm x 1.0mm x 40mm zinc plated machine bolts
3 - 6mm x 1.0mm x 12mm zinc plated machine bolts
6 - 6mm zinc plated flat washers
6 - 6mm zinc plated split ring lock washers

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Assembly:

Once all of the pieces are cut, weld the short 1” flat bar pieces to the ends of the 1” sq. tubing. The 1-1/8” long piece is for the 45 degree chamfer on the 14-3/4” piece. Two of the 1” sq. pieces are for the 2-3/4” long piece while the other 1” square is for one end of the 5-5/8” long piece. Grind all welds flush with the adjacent tubing walls. This will allow the three primary tubing pieces to be flush welded to each other at their respective points of connection for a “clean” appearance.

Next, weld the four pieces together as follows.

The 2-3/4” piece is on top of the “flat” end of the 14-3/4” piece (the chamfer is at the “bottom” and faces the alternator). The 2-3/4” piece points towards the alternator and is flush with the radiator side of the 14-3/4” piece. The 14-3/4” piece has three holes drilled in it to mount to the three upper radiator shroud bolt holes (these will use the new 40mm long bolts). This “second” version was made longer to accommodate three bolts rather than two for added rigidity. These bolt holes will need to be center punched and drilled off-center towards the radiator center due to the curvature of the shroud. Essentially, this piece mounts over the shroud flange and overhangs (slightly) toward the side of the radiator, however it is only about ½”. I spaced these three holes from the top of the welded assembly as follows:

1st. hole: = down 105mm (4-1/8”)
2nd. hole: = down 120mm (4-3/4”)
3rd. hole: = down 120mm (4-3/4”)

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Note:

I hope that all 354’s will have the same spacing, but as a precaution, I drilled these holes slightly oversize (7mm) to allow for slight alignment issues and due to the fact that they were “through holes” and not tapped. As always, your particular installation might require some adjustment. (Frank, if yours varies a little, you could go slightly more oversize but not much as you will start to cut into the inside of the tubing wall, which is a good way to break drill bits. Otherwise, if these are completely off, you could drill some more holes…but I think they will work out just fine.)

The 5-5/8” piece is then welded to the rear end/side of the 2-3/4” piece and points towards the thermostat/intake manifold side. The 6-1/2” flat bar is then welded to the bottom rear of the 5-5/8” piece, BUT it is centered on the combined dimension of 6-5/8” (the 5-5/8” piece plus the thickness of the 2-3/4” piece combined). Once these have been welded together and all welds have been ground flat, the reservoir can be laid on the “T” and the holes marked. These holes will need to be center punched, drilled and tapped to the 6mm x 1.0mm spec. I chose this size since the original shroud bolts are this size. The three original shroud bolts could have been re-used for the reservoir, however in my case, they were poorly plated so I decided to replace them.

[quikduk]

I hope this wasn’t too vague. If you look at my installation pictures and the pictures of the bracket, it should be semi-self-explanatory. If you have any questions or problems fabbing your own, just PM me or post and I’ll try to explain it better.