Rear Mounted radiator

[logang1k]

I am gonna mount my radiator in the rear of my 1990 loyale Mudwagon between the rear shock towers where the rear seatback was.. Should I use the stock radiator? It would be cheaper and I am pretty much broke. I have 2 12" 2000cfm electric radiator fans that I am gonna use to push air to the back where i will have the hatch removed to allow the heat to escape. The 2 12" fans will be a tight fit, do I really need a shroud? The rad is 25x12.75 so most of the rad will have air flowing over it. I'm gonna run rad hose through the car and out of the firewall. The hose will be covered in that mesh type hose protector. Think I should run a electric water pump on the cool side to help pump the water back or will that move the water too fast and not allow for proper cooling? I'm just gonna run something like water wetter and distilled water because the bottle says it cools better without the antifreeze. I'll just flush it out in the winter. Any other cooling tips? In the winter I can put the hatch back on and I'll never notice I took the heater out

Has anyone moved their battery to the rear? The metal under my battery is gone and I'm afraid the battery is gonna fall thru. I bought a plastic battery box that I'm gonna put where the seat bottom once was.

[subaruguru]

pooparu moved his battery to the rear do a search for threads posted by pooparu and as for the rad that should work out not to shure about the Electric waterpump.

 

Rob.

[GeneralDisorder]

You don't want to run hose for something like that - 1-1/4" tubing is the way to do it. Then you just bead-roll the ends and attach short lengths of hose between the radiator/tubing and engine/tubing.

 

GD

[Uberoo]

knock out your 1/4 panel windows as well as pull your hatch to get max airflow back there.

[NoahDL88]

It would be cheaper and I am pretty much broke.

 

Maybe not something you want to try if you are pretty much broke

 

It would have the benefit of keeping the mud out of the radiator, but you would have to keep the fans running all the time as the radiator won't be getting any wind when you're driving down the road.

 

If you look at the history of most cars that have radiators at the opposite end of the car as the radiator you'll see a lot of issues with corrosion, cooling and leaks.

 

 

 

 

My .02 cents, if you "have" to move it, cut a hole in the hood and mount it there. Same issues apply, you'll have to run the fans constantly because of poor airflow over the radiator.

[logang1k]

are they hard to put back in? Come winter time it is gonna be cold playing in the snow. Well maybe not if I reverse the fans to blow the hot air on me. Why not use hose? My car is not legal and I don't wanna trailer it to town to the exhaust shop.

[GeneralDisorder]

Yep - on top of the engine is a much better location. Mounted to a hinged swing-out assembly and run to the engine with stainless braided flex line.

 

GD

[GeneralDisorder]

Hose is difficult to run through panels and firewalls - replacement would be a horror show not to mention all the grommets you would have to use, etc. It would be vulnerable to puncture from a variety of sources inside and outside the cabin.... it's also generally bad practice to use hose where hard-piping will do the job. You save the hose for sections where movement and vibration are a concern. Hose tends to collapse when it gets weak and the continual expansion and collapsing of the hose walls leads to failure. Long runs tend to accelerate that effect.

 

You don't need to go to an exhaust shop - nor would I trust those monkeys to do cooler tubing. You can do the whole thing with an inexpensive bender from HF and either build a small tool to bead-roll the edges or use Parker style tubing fittings to go from the tubing to the hoses. The fittings will clamp to the tubing and can be had in tube/NPT which you can then thread a barbed hose fitting into.

 

GD

[logang1k]

this only has to last one day. I am probably gonna wound it fatally during my mud bog on the 3rd of july. I want it in the rear for a more even landing. Last time I ramped it, it pretty much landed on the headlights.

[GeneralDisorder]

The radiator weighs nothing to speak of. Put it on top of the engine. You will need ballast for the back to keep it even and a LOT of power to drag it and the ballast up to enough speed to get airborn.

 

Better yet - if this is for just a single run - run it without the radiator.

 

GD

[logang1k]

ok, is that kinda like when you ramp a dirtbike and you use the brakes and throttle to keep it flat?

[GeneralDisorder]

No - ballast is extra weight - sand bags, rocks, etc. That will keep it from nose-diving off a jump. But it will slow you down as well. 200 lbs back there would offset the engine nicely.

 

GD

[NoahDL88]

Bolt that stuff down, if you don't balance right you'll not want 200 pounds of stuff rolling around in the car as you are rolling the car.

[GeneralDisorder]

Yeah - probably some hardware cloth draped over the ballast and lagged down to the floor. Weld in some d-rings and put ratchet straps over it too.

 

GD