Always use distilled water when mixing your own coolant, tap water can be very hard (high in calcium carbonate) and tends to be corrosive, eating water pump seals and bare aluminum.

There are longitudinally mounted front wheel drive vehicles, FWD Subarus (GL, Impreza), as well as the Chrysler LH-Platform cars such as the Dodge Intrepid, Chrysler Concorde and 300M, as well as the Eagle Vision. Toyota had a few models using this in the late 70s/early 80s. Longitudinal mounting with FWD has been used since the 30s, with Citroen's Traction Avant, Cord 810, Ford Taunus, etc. With the advent of small displacement inline four cylinder engines and modular installation techniques, longitudinal mounting has fallen out of favor.