First trip! Options

[Ductech]

SO .... after way to much time dickering with this car... (74 teener w/ej22 and overhead radiator in the engine bay) I had finally decided it was time for a serious shake down. The Wife and I had planned a white water rafting trip outside of leavenworth. So we saddled up in the Porsche and took off. What a fun car to drive around !! Most importantly I wanted to inform any other subaru or other water cooler converters. I wanted to mount my radiator in the engine bay. I mounted it above the engine where the stock engine bay lid would be. I used the stock radiator from the legacy I gutted. I built some shroud pieces out of fiberglass. Now the important part to think about here is how air flows in the engine bay without the divide created by the engine sealing tin. I figured modestly with minimal research that the engine bay may maintain some of its stock air flow theme. I figured air would flow thru the radiator now where the stock engine lid was. Air actually flows thru the engine bay up thru the lid area when there isn't a fan pushing air thru a sealed motor and out the bottom. I had wired my fan to pull air thru the engine compartment and out the bottom. This lead to an awful overheating problem when it came time for the mountain pass. The motor would get warm. the fan would kick on ... and create air turbulence. and decrease cooling. so you pull over ... let the fan do its trick. and then motor on for five more miles.

This sucked.. I hope someone can learn from this. I wonder how effective a puller fan would be wired up as a pusher? That and maybe a slightly bigger radiator might help.. this stock suby radiator is kinda crappy. single core alum with plastic side tanks.

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Ill try and get some pics up but my camera is missing in action..

[Mike Bellis]

The rear radiator has been done and done. I do not know of a true success yet. I'm waiting for someone to use 996, Boxster or Cayman dual rads and see if it works. The natural flow of air is from the bottom - up. So if you push your ait up and out, you may have more cooling ability.

Even if you can get it to cool enough for normal driving, I'm not sure you will have the "Delta T" for spirited driving.

With a dual system and ducting through the quarters, I think you could succeed. Porsche does it for the new models.

On my first V8 conversion, I had a custom flat radiator made. The top of the shroud was just lower than the top of the bumper. It was horizontally mounted on the bottom of the front trunk. Air exit down. It worked great and allowed for a front trunk albeit smaller. The only problem ever was driving slow on a dirt road. Dust would blow up from under tha car and get everywhere.

My new system is all radiator and oil cooler in the front. Just enough room for a fuel pump and battery.