I rented a cooling pressure testing kit from Autozone to try and diagnose why my car seems to have a small leak in the cooling system, since it requires topping off at least once every two weeks on average. I also have another car that the thermostat was in the wrong way - the coil was pointing into the upper return hose instead of into the engine intake manifold - and so I wanted to do a pressure test on it too (because it was overheating due to this and I know it was driven around with this problem, don't know how many miles but probably over 100). And the hope is there is no blown head gasket with this particular car, never seen white smoke or anything.
Anyway, I got the testing kit but it comes with no adapters that will let me fit the pressure cap onto the radiator of my Toyota Camry 98 or an adapter that will let me fit the pressure cap onto the threaded opening of the 96 Ford Taurus's pressurized expansion tank (doesn't have a pressure cap on the radiator, instead it's located on the expansion tank). Needless to say, I am very disappointed because I could have done alot with this tool and now, I can't do anything!
No one seems to know where I can get the adapters that will allow me to do this test. Someone said to call Mac Fullbright. I will do that Monday morning. Perhaps they have them but I know for sure that the auto parts stores like Autozone don't have them.
Anyone have this same experience? Yeah I know, just go pay someone $25 to do it but that's no fun because I can't experiment and crank up the car and rev it and see if the pressure fluctuates to try and see if perhaps a head gasket is blown and causing overheating. All I get for my $25 is "here is the results sir".