Other thoughts? Okay, here's one.
mjalaly wrote:
Since my radiator is in the front of the car with no fill neck or cap, i need to put something near the engine that i can fill up.
Maybe you don't need it near the engine. My car (a Locost with a small industrial diesel engine and a Lola Mk1ish body) has a Civic radiator leaned back about 40 degrees for body clearance and the filler cap is well below the thermostat cover (which is also the water egress for the engine). I drive the car nose up on a steep ramp to fill the cooling system via the radiator cap, idle it and blip the throttle a couple times to burp it, and keep the overflow bear* full to its belly button when cold.
I run it back up the ramp to check it every spring and the radiator has never been low, though the overflow bear needs a splash now and then. I suspect the impeller in the water pump breaks up any little bubbles small enough to go through the plumbing, and they percolate out in the relative stillness of the radiator header, float to the top, and get cycled out the filler cap when the water warms and cools. YMMV and yours doesn't have a conventional filler-on-top radiator, but I'll bet** if he'd had a ramp nearby, Nick47's car would have filled and cooled just fine without the extra filler in the hose.
*Honey bear overflow bottles are a local tradition. I picked it up from my friend/accomplice Sharon who used them on her ultralight aircraft--they are quite handy because they're extremely light and you can mount them with a zip tie standoff around the neck. Available from Kinetic Vehicles, part number p00h.
**Though I wouldn't bet against Nick47 if he says he tried it and it didn't work.