Coolant Reroute: heater and turbo lines in series?
 

I am installing a bottom mount manifold and my compressor housing interferes with the stock water pump inlet and associated plumbing. My question is this:

Is it ok to plumb the heater core and turbo coolant lines in series? It would certainly an easier, cleaner solution.

What if I do standard back of the head coolant reroute at the same? This should reduce the importance of the heater circuit from an engine cooling perspective.

Dunno if it helps you, but I didn't like this idea when I did my setup since it would have reduced the flow through the back of the head.

I put in a Tee at the heater inlet, one line to the turbo and the other to the heater core w/ a valve on that line (downstream of the Tee). I ran the heater core outlet to the stock location and the turbo outlet to the radiator inlet line, that way I wasn't dumping turbo heated water into the water pump.

I usually keep that valve mostly closed in the warm weather to keep down the cabin temps.

I have the heater core and both turbo coolant lines all together in series. No problem.

Fluke,
You didn't really run it that way, did you?

Yeah I can see your point, the turbo might flow less than the heater core and if you have the original coolant routing you may lower flow to the rear of the head. I have my own coolant reroute so I wasn't concerned.

Thanks guys, I will do the standard rear exit re-route at the same time to keep water flowing to the back of the head.

Yep.

The valve is open enough to keep water flowing well through the two lines combined. I wouldn't close the valve all the way, although that would still be less flow restriction than the turbo in series w/ the heater core.

Edit: I didn't do the coolant reroute BTW. If I did, I would have still sent heater core water to the pump, and turbo water to the rad.

Edit II: losses through the heater core are low since it's basically straight pipe w/ corners, the CHRA is a much higher loss. Check out the size of the hole in the banjo bolt. I'm not adding that loss to the system.

I agree the CHRA is more restrictive than the heater core, but based on Tim's comment I am satisfied that the flow is sufficient if reroute the main coolant exit to the back of the head.

Also I am using AN fittings on the CHRA, no way I would consider this with banjo bolts. I'd freeze in the winter! lol

I just finished a block off plate for a forum member that takes coolant from the front where the old t-stat housing was, and he gets his heat from the back of the head from the spacer I made him.very clean looking In mockup.Just an Idea
-G-

Yeah, dat.

I also think it's important to take some water out of the front of the head, in order to keep the coolant that goes straight up from the water pump from stagnating in the front of the head and just moving the hot cylinder problem from #4 to #1. JayKav has seen my setup and is worried that pulling the whole heater flow out of the front may be excessive and undermine the cross flow result of the reroute. If that looks like it may be an issue, I can always grab a heater valve out of a Civic and put it in the heater line to throttle the flow.