Coolant tank rerouting questions, suggestions, and examples.

[georryan]

For those of you that have rerouted your coolant tank to make room for an Intercooler, how did you reroute the coolant lines? The one going to the radiator is a no brainer. I'm thinking of using a wrx tank and putting it on the opposite side. Problem is the turbo line is facing the direction of the old tank. Did you just make a nice gradual bend to the new location?

Also, the line that goes to the back of the engine block, what did you do with that one? I think that is the one I'm most questionable on.

Laurel, did you relocate your tank to the passenger side like I'm thinking of doing? If not, what did you do? I'm thinking of putting in my AWIC real soon.

[vrg3]

Where on the passenger side are you thinking of moving it?

You might try swapping to an upper coolant line from a WRX's TD04; that'll be aimed towards the passenger side. Or maybe you can flip the stock one around.

The hose that looks like it goes to the back of the engine block actually goes to a hard pipe that's mounted to the side of the block. It actually ends up at the water pump. You might do better making your own hard pipe out of copper and running it along the front of the engine; I think that's how all the other EJ turbo motors have it.

http://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~v/pics ... ooling.png

[LaureltheQueen]

I changed my gas filter to something small, and then jammed the tank between the windshield washer bottle and the strut tower like vikash and what's his name did on his wrx ic. The filter that's pictured in here definitely did not work. I ran it for a couple weeks, until I realized that it was for carbureted cars, and the pressure was making it swell, and making me nervous.


This spring I'm gonna take out the ac compressor and make a mount for it there. Rallitektech Kelley did and it turned out rather nice.

[555BCTurbo]

Mine is mounted in the Compressor location...works awesome!

Hey Laurel, if you cut your I/C to Throttle Body hose a bit shorter, you will have a bunch more clearance between the AWIC and the firewall...


Mine is only about 3 inches long...

[LaureltheQueen]

why would I need more clearance? I have about 1cm.

[555BCTurbo]

Ah...I didn't look at the pics hard enough, at first glance it appeared as the I/C was jambed agains the firewall...

I also realized that your input pipe on the intercooler isn't the factory one...so I can see why it necessitated the longer hose!

[georryan]

Mine is mounted in the Compressor location...works awesome!

As in sitting over the top of the turbo?? Isn't that heat soak a bad idea?

-Ryan

[vrg3]

Air conditioning compressor.

[georryan]

ah ok. That makes more sense.

[georryan]

Who all has moved the coolant tank to the passenger side?

[pw422]

I am running without one for a while with no ill effects. My coolant tank nipple broke during the installation of the saab IC. But I do have a turbo timer to let the engine cools down.

[mikec]

I've got one on the passenger side. Ran the hose that connected to the driver's side of the engine underneath the intake manifold and over to where it originally connected. The hose that connects to the turbo has a gradual bend back against the firewall, and then up to the tank.

I made a small bracket that bolts to the powersteering support to hold the tank. Its a snug fit in amongst the intake tubing, ABS and charcoal canister, but it doesn't appear to be rubbing on anything.

I'll see if I can remember to grab a picture of everything tomorrow.

[Legacy777]

Laurel,

Your AWIC setup looks pretty good! Do you have any specific info on the piping you used between the turbo and the IC?

I'd like to work on my setup in the next couple weeks.

thanks

[georryan]

That would be cool, thanks mike.

[jake15]

here's a quote from a pm i wrote to somebody about my coolant tank re-locating.

i routed my coolant tank so it sits right by the airbox. its pretty much just running new coolant lines to where they conncected to originally, it wasnt very hard to do it just took a little bit of time to figure out where the lines should go. the "hardest" lines to run are the ones that connect to the pipe that goes along the head from the water pump, for that one i just ran a piece of coolant hose from the bottom fitting on the coolant tank across the motor (its acroos the back of the power steering pump and under the back of the alternator) then it connects to the hard line on the back of the head. then the one for the over flow bottle i took the stock line that goes on top of the manifold for the nipple on the left side of the radiator and re-bent to to run from the coolant tank to the overflow bottle. i can get you some more detailed pictures of the way i routed it if you like

** i used a TD05 with this setup so my coolant line was pointing the right at the coolant tank, so i cant help you there.

[mikec]

Wow... With the exception of using a TD05, this ^^ is exactly what I did, including bending that hardline.

I'll still get a picture or 2 today, and I'll try to get a bit closer.

[georryan]

Thanks Jake. How are you holding the tank in place? Is it just balancing against the airbox while being zip tied to side of the manifold?

[LaureltheQueen]

Laurel,

Your AWIC setup looks pretty good! Do you have any specific info on the piping you used between the turbo and the IC?

I'd like to work on my setup in the next couple weeks.

thanks

yeah, it turned out fairly well, except for the excess of tubing and hoseclamps sitting directly above the turbo as the bov and the ENTIRE pcv system had to be rerouted. I used a 90 degree bend radiator hose(not quite 90 degrees, but close) and had a piece of exhaust pipe custom fabbed. As you can see, I also had another one made in case someone needed one, so it's yours for $20 if you want it(I paid $30 for both of them plus $15 for the steel "nipples" for the bov. The bov nipples are designed to hold over 1500 psi without hose clamps(a friend of mine uses those on hydraulic applications at a lumber yard with no problems)


The pcv system will get rerouted when the liberty heads/intake manifold go in if Jake still has those for me.

[Legacy777]

Sweet!!

Yeah i'm interested in that piece. That's really cool!

Is paypal cool? If so, would you like me to send the money to your hotmail account?

If not, let me know what you'd like.

thanks

[ultrasonic]

Laurel: what are the dimensions of the fabricated item in the photo above?

[rallysam]

Weird coincidence! I just did a coolant relocation to the passenger side 1 hour ago with the guys at gearboxtech.com

The relocate was not very hard, and it feels like I ended up with a good solid setup. I used a WRX coolant tank because my stock one started leaking tonight - that was the only reason I did the relocation tonight. The WRX tank is basically the same deal except it's metal and it's a slightly different odd shape then the stock odd shape. I think the description below would work with either.

Mounting
We mounted the tank in the big void space at the front of the engine compartment on the passenger side (between the ABS and the radiator and the airbox and the charcol canister). We made a mounting bracket out of one straight strip of aluminum. The bracket attaches to an existing nut on the ABS module (the nut is easy to find, near the bottom of the ABS module, pointing sideways towards the drivers side of the car). From there, the aluminum strip points straight up where the tank can bolt into the side of it.

Routing
I bought 6 feet of 5/16" diameter coolant hose and another 12 feet of 0.5" diameter coolant hose from Advance Auto. I also bought a male-to-male barb coupler (both barbs 5/16")

1/2" line from the turbo Removed stock line. Ran new hose in a 180 degree bend back so it heads towards the passenger side, then dives down under the turbo compressor. It pops back up in the space between the engine and airbox. Then it's at the new tank.

1/2" line from the engine block Removed stock line. New line runs along the driver's side of the engine compartment towards the front of the car. When it gets to the front of the car, it runs in front of the radiator all the way to the passenger side of the car. When it pops out from behind the radiator, it's at the new tank.

5/16" line from the overflow bottle I kept the stock one in the bottle b/c it fits nicely. I bought a male-to-male plastic barb coupler (5/16") at Advanced Auto. This can be used to attach an extension tube to the stock one that's still in the bottle. Ran the extension tube in front of the radiator (following the path of the other tube just described above)

5/16" line from the radiator This is easy. I unplugged it from the old metal pipe that runs under the intake manifold towards the old location. I could plug the old tube directly into the new coolant tank. No modification. Yay!


In this location, it's still the highest point in the system. I'll try to take some pics in the light.

What do you guys think of that setup?

[rallysam]

jammed the tank between the windshield washer bottle and the strut tower like vikash and what's his name did on his wrx ic.

Am I "what's his name"? http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=23016


That was my old aftermarket location before I moved it earlier tonight (as described in my post above).

I first saw that washer bottle location used by Matt, and I can't believe how well the bottle rests in that location LOOSE, with no mounting of any kind!!!! It was sturdy in that location through a bunch of my rallycrosses where you know my car got thrown around like crazy. The only negative thing I'll say about that location is that the bottle is sort of held in place by all the tubes that lead to it, and that might put stress on the nipples.

Don't put stress on the nipples.

[jake15]

Thanks Jake. How are you holding the tank in place? Is it just balancing against the airbox while being zip tied to side of the manifold?

its zip-tied to the power steering lines where they bolt to the manifold untill i find some metal to make a bracket or move it to the a/c compressor location. the airbox is gone now, its just the zip ties holding it up for about 1 year and 2 months now

[georryan]

Ralleysam, if you could get me a picture of your bracket that would be cool.

[LaureltheQueen]

Laurel: what are the dimensions of the fabricated item in the photo above?

I think it was 2" by 4" by a 3/4" bung. It's been like a billion years since i've even thought about the dimensions, when I get the other one out for josh, I'll measure it again.

Josh, paypal it to Laurelthequeen@hotmail.com
You'll probably want to hit it with a wire brush and then paint it, as the welds will rust without paint over it. That's why we painted mine all daggy silver.