Gates 31527 Radiator Cap Review

Purchased for a 1996 Ford Ranger 2.3 liter engine. After getting in my car and seeing "Yes, that fits your car", I bought it. That does not fit. It's too big in diameter.

Lid works but the 13psi recommended for my Porsche 944 is too low. I suggest you go with a 16psi cap. My car's head gets so hot that the coolant boils and forces the coolant out of the reservoir.

The quality is good and the parts work as they should. The spring also has more compression resistance than the Autozone cover I use. Addendum: I also had a small leak through the gasket. After putting this cap on, the leak stopped. I suspect what happened was that the Autozone cap couldn't handle the pressure in the radiator that was leaking through the gasket.

Purchased to replace the lever cover. The lever cover gasket allows air into the radiator. The coolant from the expansion tank was not sucked back into the radiator under vacuum using the lever lock. Put this on and the coolant will now flow back into the radiator to keep the system filled. There's no lever, so the pressure can't be released when it's hot, but is that true, how often should you do it?

I installed this as part of a coolant flush on my '91 Jeep Cherokee when my old one started cracking the gasket. It fit perfectly and looked just like the one he replaced. But then all my coolant splattered and my engine overheated. I poured water into the cooling system, let it warm up, and it just quickly poured out from under the cap, not getting into the expansion tank. I didn't see anything wrong with it, but it just didn't seal around the radiator neck. I drove to Napa, got another new…