Any opinions on moving radiator to rear of a drag car? Will it work? Anyone tried it?

 

that would be pretty stupid. you wouldnt have as much air flow, you would have to run long coolant lines, added weight of the extra water. even tho its not much lol. but yea it would be pretty stupid sorry. and leaks to.

 

Its a drag car though. The car is running for about 2 minutes, max. Any weight off of the front improves weight transfer. I think it would work. There would be added weight, but it would be in the center/rear of the car.

 

delete the radiator, put an equivilant size coolant tank in the trunk and mount an inline waterpump in the trunk and run the lines to the engine and cycle the **** out of the coolant. I've seen that done on a 9 second big block. It works and saves front end weight, but you cant take your time staging. It'll also help to have your block filled to keep the coolant cooler longer.

 

With the remote tank in the rear, would the electric water pump on the engine be enough to circulate the water? or would I need to put a second pump at the tank? Thats a good idea by the way. Glad someone actually read the question.

 

ya that would work. You could even try to make the tank have a strainer before the output side so you could put in ice. kind like a fuel cool without separating the liquids. Maybe make the tubing mostly out of alumn to cut the weight and help cooling.

 

Another good idea!

 

One pump should work just fine, most offroad trucks w/ rear mounted radiators only use the stock water pump to move the coolant. Don't mount the tubing solid to the frame/unitbody chassis flex could crack it open. Exhaust hangars is what I would use. A guy might also have to weld beads around the ends of tubing to keep the hoses from blowing off, . Then there's the job of routing hoses under the car or covering them in the case of a leak you don't want hot coolant spraying around the cockpit while you're strapped in.

You've probably already considered using as small/light a radiator as possible in the front, it would save a lot of grief and probably be the same if not lighter overall w/ the added tubing/lines/coolant of putting anything in the back.

 

thats why you use aluminum tubes. Believe it or not, they weigh less than rubber ones. Or if you want to be safe run an lines

 

You are not going to see any improvement in your time or speed to make it worth while. If it was a good idea every one would be doing it!

 

4x4 trophy trucks mount theirs to the rear roll bar all the time, ad run circuits for a LOG time. With good air flow to it, and a good fans/fans, you'll be fine.

 

Trophy truck's radiators are exposed to outside air though. Where were you planning on mouting yours? Inside your car there wouldn't be any airflow unless air is ducted in from somewhere. Unless you mount it to your Camaro's roof or something there's not going to be any airflow to it. I think you'd be better off with a smaller/lighter weight radiador up front.

 

I still like the idea of a remote mounted tank. I could put the tank where the rear pass. seat used to be. I could eliminate the fan and radiator all together. I could route the hoses under the car and to the pump with an fittings and hoses.

 

I know this is an old thread but it's part of the way to answering a question I wanted to ask. I run a 91 v6 in auto-x and so thinking of ways to get weight out of the nose and into the rear somewhere. I was thinking of mounting the readiator in the back somewhere and running electric fans with vents out the back. Somehow. The front windows are always open so there is airflow in. I may even remove the rear hatch so airflow out! My question was specifically about the engine water pump and hose routing/material. Is the pump enough to circulate coolant effectively? Is there an electric pump option that replaces the engine pump to reduce engine load? Hoses inside or out? Where exactly? Anyone known to have done this?