Radiator Mounted Electric Water Pump

SCrazy

SCCoA Member
I'm thinking about going with a radiator mounted electric water pump.

I'll make up a blockoff plate for the timing chain cover then mount an electric pump on the radiator tank where the outlet currently is. I think there are a couple of people with remote inline pumps but I'm not sure where they are mounted.

Does anybody have any experience with radiator mounted pumps?

http://www.meziere.com/ps-1176-1144-wp362.aspx
 
One of my friends works at C&R Racing who builds radiators for those in abundance. If I can't get a timing cover mounted pump to work I'll be going that route, too.
 
One of my friends works at C&R Racing who builds radiators for those in abundance. If I can't get a timing cover mounted pump to work I'll be going that route, too.

I cant find a timing cover mounted pump with the right spacing on the discharges except for the Morana one that is like $800.00. If you find one soon please let me know.
 
I've been using one of these for years. no problems with it. I just need to make a plate for the front cover. Guess its something I shoulld try again now that I have a TIG.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/emp-e389a-bk34/overview/
emp-e389a-bk34_w.jpg


Photobucket is being a b***h right now I'll get some pics later.
 
Here is my first attempt at a cover plate. I think it would have worked great if the plate was thicker. It leaked like crazy. What I originally did was just gut the stock WP cut the impeller off. What that did was throw all the incoming water to one side of the engine. So I had like 50* temp swings for when the fan would come on. The engine temp would go to like 210 then the fan would kick on and the engine would cool to like 150 and just keep cycling like that.

Road Hawg had a stock pump modified with a splitter to distribute the water to both sides. There are picks here somewhere.

I also routed my inlet hose behind the belts so if the serp belt ever needs to be replaced you don't lose coolant. And have to mess with bleeding. When I can get photo bucket to display links I'll get picks of the stewart pump mounted.

Kevin Leitem made a plate similar to what I have here. Thats what I modeled mine from. He used thicker material.
 

Attachments

  • plate.jpg
    plate.jpg
    81.9 KB · Views: 491
  • plate2.jpg
    plate2.jpg
    85 KB · Views: 369
  • plate3.jpg
    plate3.jpg
    92.4 KB · Views: 476
I was thinking of a plate like that...I have some 3/8 that I can make it from with a -16 fitting at each side with 2 -16 lines from the pump. If you have pics I'd definitely like to see how the pump is mounted
 
Thanks Chris...those pics definately help.

The water pump mod looks like alot of work......I'm thinking a flat plate with a coupld of AN lines would be easier.

Holy cow those electric pumps are spendy?

Did you go with the 55gpm over the 35gpm version?

Also an interesting note about the coolant hose routing, especially for guys like David Neibert who are always fighting cooling capacity. The main cooling circuit runs from the crossover in the intake through the T-Stat then to the radiator and back to the pump. There are two other circuits that bypass the radiator entirely. One from the t-stat housing directly to the water pump, the seconds from the passenger side of the intake out to the throttle body, heater core, oil cooler then back to the pump.

The main circuit flows all its coolant through 3 small openings in the t-stat, while the two bypass circuits are 5/8" or 3/4" and are wide open. I would say that more than 50% of the circulated coolant bypasses the radiator. Perhaps rerouting one of the bypass circuits through the rad would help with some extra cooling.

I don't know why the upper and lower radiator hoses are so big, with the flow restriction of the t-stat they are certainly much larger than needed for flow?
 
I don't think it would hurt to run the bypasses back to the rad. And for the rad fittings being so big I guess its kinda like having a huge blower inlet and an open exhaust.

The reason the bypasses go to the WP is most likely for emissions to let the engine warm up faster. Like if you look at the newer mod motors they completely cut out the rad till the engine warms up.
 
I don't think it would hurt to run the bypasses back to the rad. And for the rad fittings being so big I guess its kinda like having a huge blower inlet and an open exhaust.

The reason the bypasses go to the WP is most likely for emissions to let the engine warm up faster. Like if you look at the newer mod motors they completely cut out the rad till the engine warms up.

Some people run without bypasses at all, a lot of racers come to mind, but this is bad practice if you run a thermostat. The purpose of a bypass is to make sure water is circulating within the motor during warmup to prevent hot spots and possible resulting damage. If you run a thermostat at all, then it should be considered mandatory to run a bypass as well.

Of course I can't comment on the volume you might need in a bypass, it could be that the OE bypass is on the large side.
 
Do you think drilling some holes in the tstat would suffice to keep some water moving. Maybe (4) 1/4" holes around the perimeter or something?
 
From the sounds of things i am guessing that you said screw the emissions test. If you did, screw the bypass and thermostat.
 
The part number for mine is E389A-R14. Which I guess they don't have red anymore. So it is 55gpm.
 
Do you think drilling some holes in the tstat would suffice to keep some water moving. Maybe (4) 1/4" holes around the perimeter or something?

No, because that sends the water into the radiator. You want the pre-thermostat temp water circulation to occur only in the motor/heater (if you have one).

If you are going to do a remote pump and block off plate, then I don't see how you can effectively run a bypass without some complicated plumbing. If you are going to go that route, then ditch the bypass and thermostat as Kevin suggested, and the ideal situation then would be to have a temperature regulated pump controller so that the pump runs slower and then picks up speed as temp increases. I think the SPAL PWM controller could handle that job and I'm sure there are other modules that will also do the job. This is a better way of controlling temperature than using a thermostat I think.
 
From the sounds of things i am guessing that you said screw the emissions test. If you did, screw the bypass and thermostat.

I had every intention of taking the car back for an emissions retest but then the weather turned crappy and I got the itch to start working on it.
 
If you are going to do a remote pump and block off plate, then I don't see how you can effectively run a bypass without some complicated plumbing. If you are going to go that route, then ditch the bypass and thermostat as Kevin suggested, and the ideal situation then would be to have a temperature regulated pump controller so that the pump runs slower and then picks up speed as temp increases. I think the SPAL PWM controller could handle that job and I'm sure there are other modules that will also do the job. This is a better way of controlling temperature than using a thermostat I think.

I was thinking along similar lines and the only dedicated water pump controller I could find is: http://www.daviescraig.com.au/Electric_Water_Pumps-EWP___FAN_DIGITAL_CONTROLLER_12V____PART_No__8020-details.aspx.

This unit is kind of a blend of technologies, it doesn't modulate speed at low flow but rather pulses the motor at 50% speed on/off (10 sec on/30 sec off when ice cold) (10 sec on/10 sec off when getting warm) until about 40 degrees below setpoint then ramps speed linearly from 50% to 100% to regulate temperature. I assume they do this so the motor doesn't stall at very low speeds. I haven't seen the SPAL unit yet but I assume it is a fan controll but the technology should be similar I'll check it out...thanks.

Downside to the Davies Craig unit is it looks like junky construction and I can't find alot of people who have used it.

I know that OEMs are starting to eliminate mechanical thermostats and modulate water flow but I'm suprised there isn't a bigger aftermaket for this stuff....seems like a no brainer when you have an electric pump.
 
Last edited:
Brian,

There is a company called Delta Current Control that makes fan and water pump controllers that might be worth a look.

http://www.dccontrol.com/constant_temperature_controllers.htm

I've got one of their Mrk8 fans with built in controller on my 93 SC and while the unit I bought is also capable of controlling an electric water pump, I opted to wire my pump to run at full speed all the time because I still use the bypass and thermostat.

David
 
NICE !!....I'm all over that.

Thanks David

Oh and as for Keith whining about unexpected costs I'll take your fuel lines and raise you an electric water pump and controller and lines for $900.00.

Good thing Jen spent the night at the casino with the girls last night.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top