Subaru motor swap - front radiator

[Driftin]

I've been working on putting my radiator in the front of my buggy. It's a lot of work and is UGLY!! Nothing fits very well and with my motor putting about 270 hp all the radiator companies recommend a big radiator front mounted. I will be driving it mostly in the summer and can expect traffic. Also, working with a small $$ budge and limited skills. Jeep 4.0 radiator 36" long x 11/4" high, it looks a little big but I have it fit to the car now with little modification. I will add a grill and bumper to hide it some. This is what I've came up with so far. EDIT: the front radiator has been pulled off and now I'm going to try to mount it under the rear seat.

This size is better 22x13 fits well scirocco style.

Lower ride height - much better

I'm running the gates flex hose in the fiberglass tube that runs under the fender wells.

You can see the tube just above the tire. We will see how it works. The hose gets delivered to me next week.

New dash ready to go.

Gages

I'll update when I get some progress.

[Dale M.]

Most installs I have seen puts radiator under package deck (vertically) above tranaxle.... Add acouple of scoops on each side ahead of wheels (make it a feature) to help direct air to radiator, and use electric fans....

Radiator low and in front is very vunerable and ugly.... No reason to have it forward and all the plumbing to deal with... And you have no room for fans...

If you insist on keeping it up front, consider axtra cost to add additional electric water pump to move all the coolant the greater distance....

Dale
_________________
“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
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All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[Driftin]

The radiator can go under my rear seat with scoops. Where can I get a look at one? I'm open for ideas.

[Iguana]

[Free_Buggy]

Just a thought....

What about placing the fuel tank in the rear seat area and placing the rad flat (horizontal) where the fuel tank normaly goes with some louvers in the hood and some electric fans? Maybe someone has done this?
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Hugh
Genuine Manx Clone

[scarter302]

If I ever tried running rads. I'd use side pods and 1 or 2 radiators mounted in them. think Ferrari testarossa.

[Dale M.]

This car runs rear mount radiator under package deck, radiator is from mid 90 Jeep Cherokee (94 I think) ...

Its mounted vertically and about 6 inches off firewall over transaxle....

Body is uncut and engine runs within temperature limits....

I have raced against this car (belongs to friend of mine) in autocross competition and know it does not over heat.... Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of actual radiator install....

Dale
_________________
“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
============================================================
All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[streetbuggy8804]

Mine is in the rear. Much easier to plumb and as sale said with a little scoop never clears 180-200 degrees.

[Iguana]

So both those buggies are running vertical rear radiators with no body cutting ?

I just don't see how it is possible to fit it in and get air flow.

Here is the back of a Manx with a 3" lift and the battery box and spare wheel well sit on either side if the trans so no room for a flat mount.

Drop the 3" lift down and the rear bench area sits about 2" off the transmission so no real room there.

Then this is an ecotec in a Manx with the body moved forward 3"

The bell housing sits pretty close to that so again not much room for vertical.

If there is no cutting then like the red one shown the radiator must be hard up against it but I can't see how it gets any air flow.

Do you have any pictures of the inside rear tub ?

Side mounts work fine in the LWB buggies with a bit of width in the rear guards

But the SWB don't seem to be thick enough to fit them.

The vents on this Kickout SS are touching the sides of the tub so there is no real room to speak of

[Iguana]

Ok so red one is cut so only the green one is running without issue and no body mods ?

Pics ?

[Iguana]

Ignore that found one, seems it just has 1 1/2" spacing off the rear wall.

"Here is where I located a Jeep Cherokee radiator, it is mounted to rear firewall with a 1 1/2" air gap. No holes were made, I added two 10" puller fans. This set up seems to get a lot of air for cooling, to get air flow intake I believe in always make incoming air more constricted than outgoing air. Works for me. This project is in mock up and testing mode. My junkyard motor broke the junkyard transaxle, looking into a Rancho unit.
"

Guess proof is in the doing and it works it woks so there is another option.

Would be interested to know how often the fans are going on.

[streetbuggy8804]

Side pod mounts would have been my first choice had I planned water cooled from the beginning.
I chose to do some cutting to direct air flow. This is the back seat area. It is enclosed with a scoop on top of the enclosure lid

I do plan on adding a larger scoop though

[Driftin]

Sweet looking ride Streetbuggy! Thanks for the input.

I have a 1" lift on my car just to firm up the pan. Here is a picture of the space above the motor. There is about 4" - 5" of room if I flip the manifold around. I will have to relocate the alternator off center of the motor. The black plate to the left of the manifold and in the center of the back seat is where I mounted the back of the cage when I ran a VW motor. It has been cut off for this conversion and tacked back on to see if the cage will still fit.

Here is the turbo that I'm using with Outfront Motor sports header. I have some silicone elbows coming to fab up the intake. All the feed lines will come from the stock location for now.

I can get 5" under the seat by cleaning up the leftover glass from cutting out the battery box and spare tire area. My tub was older setup for a swing axle so I cut them out to run IRS.

You can see the steel fuel lines over the tranny that I ran thru the tunnel. seemed to work OK.

[streetbuggy8804]

There is a Manx 2x2 on the Manx site that runs side pod radiators and has a pretty detailed amount of pictures showing how they did it.

[Dale M.]

You need to flip manifold and relocate alternator anyway, makes much cleaner and simpler setup....

Dale
_________________
“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
============================================================
All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[Driftin]

This adapter makes it so I didn't need to flip the manifold.

Fits perfectly with the throttle body and enough room for a silicone joint to my intake. The air tube from the Turbo to the throttle body is off center to the right of the alternator.


Like this (pic from Outfront Motor sports)

[Driftin]

Here is a pic of my son's Baja with a subie 2.2L and a Mazda B2000 radiator on the rear cage. The radiator works to keep the temp between 180-200 but the fan does come on when ever the car stops moving.

[GS guy]

I'll be running a front mount:

Mine is an aftermarket Scirocco style, which I've been told is plenty for the Suby (at least in a front mount). Eventually I'll have a full lower valance/air dam covering most of it up except for a radiator intake opening.

Another front mount in a Manx style buggy:

Painted black with a bumper it wouldn't be so "pronounced".
Jeff
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70's vintage Deserter GS buggy - undergoing transformation to Super GS!

[Driftin]

GS Guy - Great looking radiator, the scirocco style/size 22x13 is still to large and sets to low for what I'm looking for in the front of my car. Looks great in your car.

Here is the room I have under the rear seat. I can squeeze the radiator in if I cut out the battery box I built on the passenger side. You can see the remnants of the fiberglass battery tray and tire well that I cut out. The radiator can set close to the tranny with 4" above for puller fans. It will have to fit in front of the shock mounts because of its 36" width.

[Tom_Kathleen]

One of the posts above referenced a Manxter 2+2 with side mounted radiators, here is the link on the conversion. http://www.manxgallery.org/gallery/album437 It is Kathleen's toy. Tom
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Manxter #16, 1968 Meyers Manx & Kick-Out SS #16 (WIP)
Manx Club & CVA