Looking at cars now with Suby water cooled engines (I prefer ECM/EFI over carbs). The one concern I have with these set ups is engine cooling. These cars were not designed to be water cooled (no large front radiator). Do these Subys have a tendency to overheat? Does anyone know about this?
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The guys at Beck (Special Edition) have built enough of them that they have worked out the kins, as have a number of home builders on this site. I have a Subaru-powered Beck Coupe with A/C and it has not overheated even stuck in Charleston, SC summer traffic.
I can tell you that Vintage Motorcars uses an aluminum radiator with two rows of 1" tubes in it. It's also a "Two-Pass" unit meaning that the water passes thru the top half first and then the second half before it goes back to the engine.......Bruce
@DWC i concur with lane & bruce.....in normal cool weather my car runs at under 180 degrees....drove it to pomona swap meet in 105 weather and hottest it got was 210 ish degrees...still well within acceptable range....outfront in O.C. built my SOHC 2.5 liter EJ 25 subaru and the radiator...A/C condensor and themostat electric fan set up seems tried and true.....at least so far
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I too can testify to how well the guys at Beck/ Special Edition have the Suby engine in a Speedster figured out. They converted a Fiberfab Speedster I used to own to Suby power, and it cooled fantastic. it cooled so well I had to block half the radiator in the winter to get the engine to come up to normal operating temps. The small amount of coolant that normally bypasses the closed thermostat via the 1/8" bypass holes was enough to over cool the engine if you can believe that. In the summer it ran at 195 on 90-100 degree days in the Ohio valley humidity. If you have one of the reputable companies build your Speedster or buy one built by them you will love it. The conversion made the Fiberfab Speedster into an entirely better car.