Uberoo Posted May 8, 2006 Share Posted May 8, 2006 what parts if any can I cut off the front of an 84 brat for more approach angle?it seems that everywhere I go I stuff the front end into the ground.Im not rallying or anything but just tring to explore ATV trails.so what can I remove or cut?that steel tube acrose the front,does that support much?also how hard would it be to put the radiator where the spare tire went? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jibs Posted May 8, 2006 Share Posted May 8, 2006 Yeah, you'd have to move the radiator, the oil pan and sending unit, and maybe a few other things. I've been wondering about this as well, and may try having a custom oil pan made. if you found a radiator small enough that could fit in the stock location, but shorter that would work. Otherwise if you move it you'd have to get a REAL GOOD fan to cool it as it wouldn't get much from the flow of the car. Ramengines has a sweet small radiator made for subaru's but its spenday at 460$ the only other thing that could get in the way is what happened to my brat, there's a support that goes from the hood latch to a spot on the valance that isn't there anymore and now my hood doesn't close all the way cause the latch and sheetmetal around it is bent down. Could be fixed with a different support though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chazmataz Posted May 8, 2006 Share Posted May 8, 2006 hey jibs you could put hood pins on your subaru, they usually go just above your headlights on your coresupport but you would have to do some drilling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airbag_89 Posted May 9, 2006 Share Posted May 9, 2006 well you can make it a reclining radiator like this. http://www.subarubrat.com/radiator.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted May 9, 2006 Share Posted May 9, 2006 Or like this. The radiator, fans, and pressure tank are out of a Porsche 924s (or maybe it was a 924turbo?) It's a nice quality and very effecient aluminum radiator. Got it back when PullaPart first opened and they only charged me $15 for the whole deal! It cools surprisingly well back there sucking air down from a Impreza scoop and trying to force hot air out the bottom. If I did it again or get around to reworking it, I'd do a cowl (sp?) hood like Qman has on his Brat and exhaust the heat up and out the rear of the hood. The way I have it in the picture keeps it cool enough that only one fan needs to come on if I'm not moving for a while or really crawling up a steep one. The original plan was to completely seal off the grill area to keep mud&water out. That just wasn't enough air flow on 80' days. So it currently has a mostly sealed up grill with air just coming in from the top most part of the grill and that's workin' good. Finding radiator hoses to fit... just ask the part store folks to let you rumage around behind the conter and dig through their complete inventory until you find what works. Anyways... so the rear radiator thing definitely works. As for hackin' off the core support... Man I've been wanting to do that ever since I moved the radiator. No reason not to as long as a strong bumper or something is used to connect the front unibody frame stuff together. That'd leave the oil pan more exposed than ever, but you gotta protect it somehow anyways or else maybe it's time for the divorced T-case "engine lift." Hope that helps a bit. I say go for it, do it, test it, and if it works, post pics . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott in Bellingham Posted May 9, 2006 Share Posted May 9, 2006 nice job, wheres the air intake end up and airfilter? Or like this. The radiator, fans, and pressure tank are out of a Porsche 924s . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phizinza Posted May 9, 2006 Share Posted May 9, 2006 From what I have seen a good sized radiator can only fit above the engine when you have a 6" lift. I could be wrong, but this is what Subarubrat said. You could move the radiator, weld in a new cross brace bar just in front of the engine pullies (or if you had a 6" lift, above the enging infront of the airbox. On second thought, that would be a bad idea, as you need to connect the chassis rails. There the bits the engine crossmember bolts onto.) I'd say its possible to get 200mm off the front. But, what size lift you running at the moment? A 6" lift just by itself could solve your problem. As it will bring the front of the vehicle higher and increase the angle from the tire to the front bumper. Or, there is another option. Change of driving style. Try getting the car to go up at a angle. Of cause, without LSDs/lockers this wilk be hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted May 9, 2006 Share Posted May 9, 2006 The Porsche radiator in my Hatch fits perfect with a 3" Brett Rogers BYB kit. When you mount the radiator, the trick is to make either make it hinged so you can easily lift it up to access the clutch or else mount it directly to the hood as someone on here did. About cutting off the radiator core support on a daily driver...it's part of the unibody crumple zone. So when removing it and attaching a mega-bumper or whatever, it might be worth considering what will happen in a hard wreck. A long time ago I ran a stock Hatchback into the back of a stopped Caprice at about 50mph. The engine ended up tucked neatly under our feet and we walked away and went mountain biking the next day. The outcome probably wouldn't be so cool if I did the same wreck in my current hatchback with 2" tubes inserted way into the front frame rails to mount the Jackman bumper. I wonder if those tubes up the frame rails might just intrude into the drivers compartment. Yikes. My air intake has a cone filter inside a big juice bottle up in the spare tire space by the fire wall. Stays nice and dry up there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweet82 Posted May 9, 2006 Share Posted May 9, 2006 What about just making a beefed up skid plate and keep everything else the way it is? An angle of approach is only so good without the gearing to back it up? My .02, Glenn 82 SubaruHummer 84 GL Mad Max 01 Forester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phizinza Posted May 9, 2006 Share Posted May 9, 2006 From what I understand about how they build cars the front crumple zone won't affect where the engine goes. The great thing about N/S engine placement is the design of the firewall assists in pushing the engine down and backwards. But, if you cut any part of the unibody you are drastically decreasing safety. I only said weld in another bar to keep the car from twisting. I kinda think Glen is on the right track. Big slidy skid plate, and some more juice to get it to silde that first foot up the hill... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnW Posted May 10, 2006 Share Posted May 10, 2006 If you have a 2.2 or 2.5L engine you can use the Vanagon conversion oil pans that are shortened. Kennedy Engineered Products (www.kennedyeng.com ) and smallcar.com both offer them. As for the radiator you could do like MikeW did and put it under the hood or use a shorter one and modify the radiator supports. Custom radiators can be had from a lot of shops just change some tanks and cores I think its around 200 bucks to have done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberoo Posted May 11, 2006 Author Share Posted May 11, 2006 I need to get my other car running so I can pick up a motor for the subie.then after that I promise I'll put a rad+fans in the spare tire bay.hows this for an idea-a rear faceing cowl hood scoop and fans to push air through rad(hot air out the scoop) as a benefit more air would be sucked out as speed increases.I suppose I could have plate under the rad so as not to suck hot engine air through rad.sinse I need to get a hood scoop anyway to cover the hole I made for the aircleaner box(weber carb,had a slight clearance issue) I could just get a long camaro style cowl...yaa!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugaru Posted May 11, 2006 Share Posted May 11, 2006 I used a Toyota MR2 radiator for my hatch (with a 4" lift), the inlet and outlet are in the proper place and I am running dual fans that "breathe" through nice little (big) holes in the hood. This radiator is set up for an inline pressure cap so you can still close the hood with just enough room. The new approach angle is totally worth the work, and a new cross support can be welded in higher with little effort. One thing to consider if you are going to go this far is to run your exhaust up and over the engine crossmember, every little bit counts. Yeah Kennedy makes a fine product, but not cheap. With the set up I have, haven't found the need for a modified oilpan, I'm hardly using the skidplade as it is. Also AMC made a radiator way back when, that was real short but very wide that should fit behind the grill. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/photos/showphoto.php?photo=10854&cat=500&ppuser=600 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted May 11, 2006 Share Posted May 11, 2006 I'm glad to see folks finally doing this and sure wish I did back when I was modding my car. I'll bet the Camero style cowl will work great for venting the heat. I've noticed that when driving my car in the rain, water dropplets just sit there on top of and around the impreza hood scoop. I think that indicates that the back of the hood is a major low pressure area and therefor heat would get sucked out if it was vented there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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