Need Your Help- Underbelly Radiator Design

[vwwestyman]

[panel]

Are you guys adding any Schrader valves or petcock(s) to the rad to assist in bleeding?

I'd really like a 2 1/4" - 2 3/4" thick rad if possible. Anyone know of any out there in and around the 19" x 22" ? 3" is a little low for my liking as my bus is lowered.
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My '65-Subaru EJ20 Turbo conversion

[JPVWKD]

Just stumbled on this thread (and this part of the forum for that matter) and some really interesting stuff going on over the pond. I started a forum (vwkd) back in 2006 when I first started out converting my early bay to watercooled just to try and get some like minded people to help me out and many of these conversation ensued around air flow and pressure.

I have been running a fairly crude set up for the last 10 years after a few failed attempts. Although here in the UK it is a tad cooler.

Anyway some pics but after reading this thread I may make some mods as I'd like to get it up a bit higher and the bus a bit lower.

PS I love the fUK'd comments a few pages back.. the company that makes these monstrosities are called Danbury and are just down the road from where I work so see lots of them on the roads.. horrible things.. hope they won't last much longer now they have stopped making the Bays out in Brazil.
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1971 Early Bay Camper - TDI
1977 Late Bay Westfailia Campmobile 70 - 2ltr Suitcase
1979 Late Bay Twin Slider - 1600cc
1972 Triumph Spitfire

[vwwestyman]

[Sloride]

I had the same question as above. Hard to tell from the picture. My rad is lower on the front, scooping air. I've blocked off the back (which is higher) and forces the air down through the rad with two pusher fans.

Again, someone needs to make a good quality off the shelf version. It can't be that hard or expensive to do.
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1972 Westfalia - 1.8 VW in-line h2o conversion
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Link to the engine swap:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=565304&highlight=

1964 Ruby Red Beetle

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=705757&highlight=ruby+red

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[JPVWKD]

My scoop is facing forward so scoops the air into it with 2 sucker spal fans to pull the air through though don't think they've ever come on due to the crap weather in this country. The radiator is from a old 90s Jag.

This place does off the shelf rad but not sure how good it is and I've seen RJES ones on buses but not seen it on his site

http://www.fellowsspeedshop.com/product/radiator/
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1971 Early Bay Camper - TDI
1977 Late Bay Westfailia Campmobile 70 - 2ltr Suitcase
1979 Late Bay Twin Slider - 1600cc
1972 Triumph Spitfire

[panel]

~I've spent some time on the VWKD site.....It's a lot of good conversion info.

~What's the dimensions of the Fellows rad? I've looked but can't find any.

~Found this really good conversion that someone did: http://1979vwconversion.blogspot.ca/2011_04_01_archive.html
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My '65-Subaru EJ20 Turbo conversion

[skills@eurocarsplus]

IIRC fellows has you drill holes in the frame to run the pipes....not really a big fan of that
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[panel]

[TDCTDI]

[Convoy]

Panel you taking orders at this time? What kind or what car/truck is that off of?

[richparker]

[panel]

[skills@eurocarsplus]

right....

and I stand by the moderately handy DIY'er can do the swap for 4-6K if they are thrifty.

several ways to go about this for sure, and many have had luck running X,Y and Z radiators.

I think that one in the photo a few pots above is from lopez over on STF. it works well, but I don't like the way he has the radiator act like a scoop. IIRC, it gets mounted on an angle, which is effective BUT makes it way more vulnerable to a direct hit.

one of the big reasons I don't disclose my setup is twofold. 1 is all the bullshit I got in my build thread, and one member here sent me a scathing p/m about how he was Gods gift to the automotive world and didn't think I had a clue.

second reason is I reached out to jake raby for help. at the time, I would have given him 10K and a blowjob for a solution. he declined, and gave me the 1 magic ingredient that makes what I do work. I chose the radiator (which he reached out to me to source for a cooling problem he was having) so we kind of in a fucked up way worked together.

so, out of respect for him, and I would assume him for me....we keep our mouths shut. and all of my swap clients have agreed to do the same. I am a man of my word and will take what jake told me to the grave
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[vwwestyman]

My radiator setup is sort of modeled off of the Fellows setup. If you dig around in my build thread, and get past a couple lame-o attempts at utilizing a too-small Golf radiator, you'll see some pics I uploaded from Fellows showing how their radiator system works.

Mine isn't nearly as pretty but seems to work now. Skills didn't tell me exactly what to order but graciously pointed me in the right direction though I still had to figure out how to hook it all up and all that, and I believe my air flow direction may be opposite of what he has done. It seems to work well, though I have noticed that after a while the floor of the bus does warm up from the hot air blowing up toward it. I too don't feel comfortable stating the exact setup based on what I was told thought at the same time have tried to pay the help forward.

I've thought about trying some reflective stuff under the floor, and about reversing the air flow, but it hasn't been bothersome enough to mess with that. I'd rather drive the bus!
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[JPVWKD]

My original set up worked well but failed when I decided to lower the bus as it was about an inch from the ground ..

I then pulled the underbelly pans off to do a between the rails set up and discovered how rotten my bus was

I then tried this set up using the same rad but didn't work well at all

So that's why I have ended up where I am now.
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1971 Early Bay Camper - TDI
1977 Late Bay Westfailia Campmobile 70 - 2ltr Suitcase
1979 Late Bay Twin Slider - 1600cc
1972 Triumph Spitfire

[skills@eurocarsplus]

Going flat between the rails isn't my favorite to be honest, but it works well. On a totally slammed bus you *could* cut the shift rod tube and leave the ends...problem is you would need custom bushings made to support the rod.

This would give you another 3/4 to 1" of space I think. Even the slim fans (that actually work...spal, etc) are quite thick. Almost wonder what a good work around would be to get the shift rod out of there all together...cable shift? Then you would have tons of room. Problem is we are trying to shove 10 pounds od shit in a 5 pound bag
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[tristessa]

[Sloride]

My fans are arranged to straddle the shift rod tube as well. In fact, that's why I went with two fans and have a brand new larger one sitting on the shelf in my garage.

With one larger one placed in the middle it forced me to have the rad too low for a lowered bus.

I'd say we do Subie or 1.8t swaps and cable shifts for all!

I like it and I got to say I like the fact we can speak about all of this more freely on the forum.
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1972 Westfalia - 1.8 VW in-line h2o conversion
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Link to the engine swap:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=565304&highlight=

1964 Ruby Red Beetle

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=705757&highlight=ruby+red