Hey all. I'm new to this forum. I have, (mostly through the labour of my trusty mechanic), just completed an ej22 conversion into my 76 van. We tossed around a few radiator placment options, but eventually stuck an origional subaru radiator in the back of the engine bay, much the same as it was in the origional donor vechile. Although the car is still unregistered, the few brief trail runs down the local strip seem to have had good results, the fans switching on and off for a brief period every few minuets....The radiator is sevcied with two good sized thermo fans. Just wondering if anyone else has run with this option and with what resluts?? Also, what is the typical responce to the problem of heater instalation??? ant tips?. Cheers!!!

if it works, then :thumb

But it might be different story when the engine is asked to do some work in summer, perhaps...?

Oh, and welcome to the site!

[ Edited on 1-7-2007 by VWCOOL ]

Let us know how it goes.

Some rear mount radiator setups have problems at highway speed as the back of the bus gets a low pressure area, and the airflow doesn't match the power being used to keep up to 100kph.

Hmmm. I have thought about both the problem of hot days and the limited air circulation at the rear of the old girl… However, positioning the radiator flat under the vehicle didn’t seem likely to offer any more air flow to me. I have a friend running this option with two radiators under his van and he struggles to maintain an appropriate temperature on hot days even with the air intakes we fabricated… Guess it will be a bit of trial and error, venting the back tail gate and looking at a few ducting methods might help…. I’ll tell you how I go. Cheers for you input.

my v6 powered bay had the radiators mounted underneath.
never had any cooling issues.
on interstate trips, the thermo fans barely ever came on.

The low air pressure and lack of air flow is why the back of station wagons and busses will get a lot of dust build up on the back of the car quickly in dusty conditions. The dust drops because the airflow slows so much.

Underneath also has some air pressure drop. There is the ability to fabricate shrouding to create the flow required.

The ideal location is on the front, in regards to effectiveness.