Prodigy Performance 3.6 Turbo DIY Install

[UselessPickles]

UPDATE: new coolant reservoir location: http://jeeplab.com/showthread.php?13...ull=1#post3638



The second independent/separable step is getting rid of the stock coolant reservoir (it's in the way of the charge air pipe for stage 2 as well), and installing a new reservoir in a different location.

Here's the new reservoir:






It's a Meziere 28oz Coolant Recovery Tank: https://www.meziere.com/ps-1444-1377-wr100s.aspx


And this is where it gets mounted, behind the front bumper on the passenger side:






This requires drilling holes and tapping threads. Take your time and double check the positioning, mark where you want the holes, etc. I actually mounted mine slightly differently than Prodigy's instructions. Their instructions show the tank mounted slightly further back and lower, causing the bottom of the tank to hang down lower than the part of the frame that it is mounted to. I found that there was barely enough room to mount mine flush with the bottom of the frame. The positioning of the top mounting hole ended up being VERY close to a large existing hole in the frame, so i had very little room for error when drilling that hole.

Don't repeat my mistake when tapping the threads: I used the drill motor with the thread tap, spun it too fast, and got it stuck in the hole, then ended up snapping the tip off in the hole. That was fun to drill that out. Lesson learned: tap VERY SLOWLY. You're supposed to twist the tap by hand, but I just couldn't keep it steady enough with my hand. I ended up using the drill motor again, but this time I oiled the tap for lubrication, and did my best to simulate twisting by hand with the drill motor by doing short, slow, smooth bursts of drilling, to avoid overheating the tap.

The original hose from the radiator to the coolant reservoir gets reused. Just run it straight down from the radiator cap and find a path forward to connect up with the new reservoir.


Yes, you will have to remove the two mounting bolts and pull the reservoir out a bit if you want to take the cap off and check the coolant level in it. I would much prefer another semi-transparent plastic container that is easy to visually check, like the one in the RIPP kit. But the space where RIPP places their reservoir just isn't available with the turbo installed.

Also, this reservoir is much smaller than the stock reservoir. I spent some time looking up info about how much 50/50 coolant/water mix expands/contracts with temperature. I don't remember specifics, but I did find enough info to conclude that this reservoir is pretty much the smallest you could possibly go for the amount of coolant in the Pentastar. Because it's so close, it might just take a little trial and error to get it filled to the correct level so that it doesn't overflow when hot to the extreme (idling in traffic on a hot summer day), and doesn't allow air to be sucked into the system when cold on the coldest winter days.