Best spot I could find on the firewall that wasn't so curvy. Notice the final hole drilled for the post that sticks out of the bottom back side of the rez
Two things --- Your turbo being close to the VC shouldn't be a major concern. The part that's close is the fresh air intake, which should provide some cooling for the heat transferred from the exhaust portion. It's still really hot, but not much more than the head underneath the VC. Your leaky coolant part is probably the swivel connector. It has an o-ring that prevents leaks while the reservoir swivels. Since you're mounting it on the firewall, there should be no need to un-bolt the res for other maintenance, and swivel it out of the way. This swivel connector is part of an assembly, and isn't available separately. You might consider just clamping a long, flexible hose from the res to the rest of the hose assembly, and cut the leaky swivel out of the system. Or, maybe try a replacement o-ring --- depending on corrosion build-up inside the connector?
Good idea. I didn't think of that. I'll just remove the plastic connector and clamp the hose straight to the res...