Cooling System Prefacelift/Facelift

[trenchy24]

New to the Forum, joined up as i am planning on fitting an M20b25 into my E28 and have been doing alot of research. Also purchased a Wild Chip from Speedtouch thanks to recommendations on here.

My question is whether i can use the prefacelift cooling system (as found in my E28 520i) on a Facelift engine (The one thats going in) as i dont think i will be able to move the Coolant tank to the opposite wing.

Will it get in the way of the Distributor?
Are there any disadvantages to the older system?
Should i try harder at moving the tank?

Thanks in Advance

Chris

[Brian28]

I think that it will work if fitted with the older M20 style water pump. Only based on older E30 engine fitting to newer E30 water system, I just changed for the later pump. From memory one less outlet on the newer pump (but may have got that back to front).

[trenchy24]

From looking at RealOem the early water pump has an outlet on it that goes to the coolant tank.
I think i can still use the metal pipe that runs across the front of the block aswell.

[b12rlw]

The early system uses a radiator with feed/return on the nearside of the car. The latter system has the cross pipe and has a through -flow (I.e. one side to the other). I used the latter system when using an e39 5 series rad for my turbo build. The water pumps are indeed different and the early one has one less port.