Steam Vents on a 5.3

Kidd1 · Apr 10, 2014

What are you guys doing for the steam vents on the LS motors? I was looking at this kit on ebay. I wasn't forsure if everyone was blocking them off or if you all was doing something like this. Thanks

http://www.ebay.com/itm/141063124830?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

XJ savage · Apr 10, 2014

Dont' block em off! You need those. i ran mine into an aftermarket surge tank. Some folks tap it into the upper radiator hose. It will have a small amount of coolant and water come out of it that has to go somewhere.

hokie_yj · Apr 10, 2014

I bought a kit like that off eBay for my LQ9. It only uses the front two ports though. Truck motors came from the factory with the back two ports capped. You can run it to a surge tank like he said, or if you don't have a surge tank run it to the top of your radiator on the opposite side of the inlet hose. That's what I'm going to do on mine.

Kidd1 · Apr 10, 2014

I was told that my motor came out of a truck but it has all 4 of them connected. It did have a truck intake on it anyways so I am changing it to a car intake for more clearance so the stock steam vent hose is in the way. I am going to have to run a car water pump and going to buy the spacers to space it out and they come with a pump out hold in one side, is that a place to tie them in at or is that for something else? Thanks for the help guys.

yjwrangler95 · Apr 10, 2014

I ran mine to my upper radiator hose with one of these. Seems to work well so far.

http://www.jagsthatrun.com/Pages/Parts_Cooling_TransHoseTees.html

XJ savage · Apr 10, 2014

If you do decide to go the surge tank route, Canton makes a killer aluminum one that has a port to run the surge line into. If you have plans on using a heater then I'd highly recommend using one which is why I did.

patooyee · Apr 10, 2014

The truck motors had the back two ports blocked off because the engines are installed at a slight uphill angle so any steam / air travels to the front two ports naturally. The cars were installed pretty much flat so air would not reliably go to any one port, thus all 4 ports were tapped.

I built my own kit basically the same as that one and went to my radiator return hose, it has worked great.