Subie swap thought?, cooling options Options

[evangojason]

been looking on the site and cleaning up the floor in my 75 914 that will some day
be water cooled and a question poped into my head. why run the water lines in the center tunnel? Couldnt I use the space currently occupied by the air tubes? Has this been done? I searched and everyone with a radiator up front runs them down the center. There would be no use for the air tubes. Just a thought.

[charliew]

Aluminum will cool faster than iron but horsepower is what makes the heat. Also the turbo motor only makes the big hp numbers while it's on boost which is not even 30% on the street. On the track it's different. Also the torque applied to the chassis is less because the suby doesn't make v8 torque down low when you are taking off so the stress is way different. A electric motor with it's immediate torque is the most destructive power to a driveline in normal use.

[pktzygt]

Aluminum will cool faster than iron but horsepower is what makes the heat. Also the turbo motor only makes the big hp numbers while it's on boost which is not even 30% on the street. On the track it's different. Also the torque applied to the chassis is less because the suby doesn't make v8 torque down low when you are taking off so the stress is way different. A electric motor with it's immediate torque is the most destructive power to a driveline in normal use.

Well put! What I was trying to say is that some of the V8 stuff could be overkill, but like you said, horsepower makes heat and the suby definately has potential to make horsepower. The suby may not break trannys like the V8 does, but building a tranny the same way you would for a V8 could be done. The gear ratios that might be used for a V8 make sense for a suby too. Running 1800RPM on the highway sounds nice for any motor.

I like the idea of running the cooling lines through the longs sounds like the way to go. But initially, under the car might make more sense. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the type to take shortcuts. But, in my mind there is a line between doing it right with the lines in the tunnels and the car on jack stands for an extra 6 months or longer. Versus running the lines under the car until you get around to doing a restore or installing an Engman kit.