Radiator Cap

[albertcua]

what is the size of 1990 radiator cap? arent all toyota's the same?
pls help..

Abert

[EKam]

Compatibility of rad cap is usually go by engine codes.

I highly doubt all toyota rad caps are the same.

[albertcua]

forgot to mention that my car is a camry V6

[Nico]

They generally are "the same" (the same form and same conception). What is generally different is the pressure they can handle, and that depends from your engine.

[terrynham]

Originally posted by Nico
What is generally different is the pressure they can handle, and that depends from your engine.

when you say the Pressure the engine can handle. does that mean the number which is on the radiator cap? like 0.9 or 1.3?

if this is the case, wouldnt putting lets say a 1.3 cap on a car which normally has a 0.9 cap, increase the pressure to a higher limit which it cant handle and ultimately damage the radiator or engine?

[Nico]

I am not an expert at radiator caps but I am pretty sure that it wouldn't be a problem. On most European cars fo instance cooling systems just don't work with such a device, water just can't get out of the system no matter what temperature (>pressure) there is, which leads to a very high pressure without any dammage in case of overheating (to a certain extend of course). So if you put a cap of 1.3 instead of 0.9 this shouldn't make any harm, on the contrary it would be a bit even easier if one day you get overheating problems, you'd still be able to drive the car for a bit longer (because with these systems the more the engine overheats the more water leaves the more the engine overheats,... and that can be a pain when you MUST bring your car back !)

[89SV21]

There's two types of toyota radiator caps: Type S and Type N. The 90 gen2 with the 2vz and the 3sfe as well both use the type S kind of cap. The difference between the two is that the type S has a spring type pop off valve in it and the type N has a non screw type valve also the widths of the two caps are different. Nico's right, if you put a 1.3 bar cap on a rad that originally came with a 0.9 bar cap you'll lower the chance the car has of overheating. The pressure rating on the cap is the max pressure that the cap can sustain before it pops off. Hope this helps ya.

[Camdaddy]

On a Gen 3 Camry 4 cylinder is that a Type S or N??? I got a type S one and it doesn't fit I assume the N one should?? Any insight on that??

Thanks, Kevin

[Kensuke]

Originally posted by terrynham
when you say the Pressure the engine can handle. does that mean the number which is on the radiator cap? like 0.9 or 1.3?

if this is the case, wouldnt putting lets say a 1.3 cap on a car which normally has a 0.9 cap, increase the pressure to a higher limit which it cant handle and ultimately damage the radiator or engine?

Radiator cap pressure is measured in either bars or PSI. 0.9 is a bar rating, which equates to 13psi.

The more you pressurize your system, the higher the temp has to be before it releases coolant into the overflow tank. This allows it to stay in the radiator longer and flow through the block. In theory, your engine stays cooler, longer.

The downside to this is that if the pressure is too high, it will cause the radiator to weaken and ultimately burst. Like with ignition timing or boost pressure, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing if the components aren't designed to take it.

According to the Hayes manual, the 2nd gen radiator falls between a range of 11 and 15 psi. Stock is 13 psi (which is what I use). I wanted to get a TRD cap, but decided against it when I found out how expensive they are, and the fact that they have a high rating of around 18 psi.

Hope this helps.

- John