A dusting of dirt is one thing, 6-8" of solid packed mud from taking nose shots around a course that’s been rutted up all day long is a completely different thing and the one that is most likely to happen. Even making a custom core doesn’t solve the problem of getting the core up and out of direct shots from the debris. With the EJ series motors, you can do a thicker laid back setup…
RCM car…
Notice the ~8" there between the rear of the core support and the timing covers that would otherwise allow a laid back cooler setup? I don’t have that on the '02. The crank pully occupies the forward space that used to be where the AC condenser lived, let alone the radiator.
Typically you’d be able to use a thicker but shorter core and angle the cooler back into the bay and get the bottom of the core out of the lower opening(which you can subsequently block off). Cooling air would come from the upper nose vents(more than adequate). I can’t do this. With the room I have I’d end up with a radiator maybe ~ 20" long and 12" high at best. Being pushed forward it has to fit within the headlight framing up front too. Nowhere near enough to cool the larger motor that’s in the car now, and that’s if it stayed clean too.
I am building an airdam in conjunction with a rear STi spoiler to create a high pressure right before the airdam. Properly placed and sized NACA’s on the trunk lid surface would then pressure feed to the core in the trunk. Core will then be vented to the underside diffuser and out the bottom of the car(low pressure area).