As I have a fair bit of experience with engine cooling design I thought I'd add a few more words…. Particularly as I am about to run a rear mounted rad in one of my old Minis to keep the 2 litre 16v turbo lump in the front cool

Rear mounting a rad is exactly the same process as if you have a rear mounted engine - just the other way round!! So this is nothing new as Lotus, Porsche and even Rover/MG (MGF) have been doing this for years. The only added issue you face is sorting out enough air flow through the rad.

You probably do not need an electric water pump - a std K-series pump can move 10 litre of water round a cooling system adequately for a standard production car - i.e. there is no way it should over heat on the road.

You CERTAINLY need to keep the stat or you will never get the coolant up to temp - which would leave you running rich (cold start) for ages. The engine will also not make good power if it is either over cooled or under cooled.

From previous experience, NASCAR ducts in the rear screen simply do not offer enough air flow to the rad - although as said by Bomber, getting the air to the rad is only half of the problem, you must consider how it is going to escape. Air flow under a car is complex and if you try and push the air into a zone of high pressure it simply won't flow as you wish.


The best way to go about this is to build yourself a setup and test it - Infrared temp guns are fairly cheap and very good to visualise what the temps are. Thermocouples can easily be stuck into the end of a rubber pipe to see what the water temps are doing!

Hope that’s of some use!

Alex