I'm wondering if anyone has a pic of a successful Radiator mounting inside the engine bay, Thinking along the lines of mounting where the motor compartment lid would be. or just below it with the rain below removed, or a 914/6 gt engine lid(the kind with two grill panels instead of the normal half sheet and grate) Just really wanted to see How much ducting people have used to get decent temps running a subaru motor. I really don't want to have to cut up the front of the car. I am not afraid to fab, and have a subaru legacy radiator that is 3/4 the width of the engine bay opening.

Just a thought.

less thought and more search my friend. Try tonyakavw's thread

I don't know this gentleman Tony Long, but he seems to be as hard working, determined and clever as anyone. He seems to have nearly proven that a radiator mounted in the engine compartment is more trouble than it is worth.

The big problem is not space in the engine compartment, but finding enough airflow through that space.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...9&hl=subaru

who was the suby guy from Maryland? he drove it out to CA the day after he got it running for the WCC 05. he won a set of WEVO trans mounts and installed them in teh parking lot 10 minutes after winning them

here he is

scotty914

had a 165 hp suby in his black 1975/76 ??

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...c=25736&hl=

The opening on mine in the front trunk is 8" X 22" and I've never had any over heating issues.

............I suppose NONE of these people ever thought about how intake temperature directly affects horsepower output....this is why it,s so important to have good engine compartment seals,and under chassis air deflectors.

I have gievn this much thought to, I have a buick V6 powered ride, with front radiator. becuase of the engien, I have now engine bay seals, you can see the ground around the motor.

here is my thjoug t on it. if you have small radiators you could mount them up near where engine lid teh grill would go (I was thinking depending on engine, you may have to raise the grill a bit, maybe a couple inches, not enough to fully block the rear window.

I would set up the radiator(s) with fans that would direct the air up and out of the engine bay. this is the natureral direction of air flow when teh car is moving and you have no engine bay seals. this will get rid of the hot air out of the enigne bay and suck in cool air from under the car. this will work when teh car is moving. I did tests with paper strips to determine air flow on my car, with no engine bay sealing, air indeed does flow from t eh bottom up thru teh engine bay when driving (just teh opposite of the air flow the factory forced induced with seals and a fan).

now in styopped traffic, there maybe a probelm with high heat from teh exhaust system pre-heating teh radiators, if this is the case a reversable fan could be used to switch air flow direction when in stopped traffic if that is a concern.


my probelm with teh big V6 is hte close proximity fo the bare headers to wher i want to get my cold air supply. with the subaru engien, the headers are under teh engine, not on the sides like a V6 so you probably better off, also cuase the subaru is not as tall a motor, you have more space to mount the radiators above it.


as far as hot air int eh intake, if you run the fans so the air blows up and out you not going to have an issue, but if you run then the other way, you may want to add a cold air snorkle to the air intake face it most cars have the radiator infront of the motor, blowing hot air onto the motor, most fo these modern cars now have cold air snorkles . that is a good idea me thinks.

I think with the lower coling requirements of a small subaru motor, this radiator location will work


I did read up on the tony radiator project, one of the probelms was he needed to make a cold air scop under the car. the problem si that will scoop up a lot of leaves and debries from teh road , and can clog the radiator. That project had the radiator standing up vertically just behind the forward engine bay fire wall.

I think there would be freeer air flow with the radiator on teh engine lid.
one or more small car radiators could fit up there with fans, with air flow going up and out of the engine bay thru teh radiator(s)

good luck

good luck

Horsepower is directly related to heat or btu's. If the motor makes 300hp it needs a 300hp radiater that flows free. A cold air intake is a lot easier to make than good radiator flow. As many people have stated the 914 with the top off has air coming over the targa into the passenger compartment just like dunebuggies and jeeps. That would be at speed. I think it was racer chris that posted a picture of strings laying flat on his engine grill at speed. At any rate more power to anyone that wants to experiment.

I think the only way to make it work is with Boxster grills on the side and fans pulling air through small radiators at each side of the engine bay. You still need enough cooling to match your HP.

Or scoop it from the roof...

I would put it up front personally... you've got plenty going on under the engine lid...