ok, i know that water pump takes nearly as much power at power steering and altenator to spin, but how much flow does the average "high flow" water pump driven by a belt flow?

I have a 140amp alternator, would the draw affect the car much?

Can electric water pumps be street driven? The car will be daily driven, if an electric water pump cannot then i will not get it.

IF ya need this info-
Motor is a very built 355,
Forged nitrided crank, foged rods and pistons, all balanced
10-1cr
ported and polished vortecs
1.6ratio rockers
.520/.544 lift, 234/244 duration @ .050 hydrolic cam

 

I put one on my car in the quest for more hosepower. I bought the Meziere WP-321 which flows 55 GPM. The side benefit which surprised me was how well it keeps the engine cool. It has run much cooler than the factory water pump. Make sure you take your time and do a first class job on the wiring. I think that is where some fall down and the pump stops working.

 

My electric water pump, fuel pump, engine fan plus every other electric device in my car is powered by a 37 amp alternator with an underdrive pulley and it still charges when idling.

 

I think on a daily driver if for any reason your pump fails you will be stuck getting towed. Maybe buy two of them just in case.

 

well i could always keep my old one and it would be easy that way....

 

I have a Weiand electric pump,probabley would be considered lower end stuff as far as water pumps go.HUGE improvement in low RPM/low speed driving.I go to a huge cruise in Branson,Mo. every year in August,and that pump with a 31x19 Alum. radiator and a 16" electric fan keeps it 200* or cooler in bumper to bumper,barely moving traffic,with the temp. of the air at 85-100*.

That said,I don't know if an electric pump on a daily driver is a good idea or not.If it were me and I was only looking at a HP increase,I'd probabley spend the money elsewhere.I'm running one looking for every last drop of HP,the only accessory on my engine is an alternator.As I said,though,I'm not sure I'd trust one day in and day out.They are pretty much a race item,not intended for the rigors of daily use.

 

ok, thats what i've heard....

 

Aerospace components and Mezeire both claim that theirs will last with the rigors of daily driving.

 

I dont think its a question of longevity. I think the problem with daily driving is if a mechanical pump starts to go it usually drips but will still get you home. Now if an electric pump fails for any reason you have no choice of having to either replace it with a spare or have to get your car towed.

 

I would mostly agree. I've driven mine only as far as 2 hours away.I keep a mechanical pump with gaskets, a belt, silicone and a tool box when I go more than 20 miles from the house.

 

Bout the same as an electric fuel pump


There are lots of things on your car that can just "go out" and leave ya waiting for a hook, IMO the electric pump-even on a daily driver is well worth the power you gain and additional cooling. With the old factory set up i could barely keep my mild 355 cool on hot days, installed the electric water pump and noticed immediately in the summer temp would be about 20* less than it was with the mech pump and that it as high as it'd go.

 

some are backed by a 100k hour life warentee, but if your motor blows from it not colling the engine, they're not liable. seems lie the autozone product "lifetime warentee" all they have are cheap rebuilds that they hope you sell the car before your part breaks.

 

Definatley not the same. Im not saying its not worth it but for a daily driver if you dont mind having to change your water pump out on the highway incase it goes then you wont mind or end up getting it towed. Im just saying with a mechanical pump they will usually start to leak when they go so you have that much time to get it home and fixed. I dont car what the manufacture says about the pump because their isnt anything that is going to tell you the water pump is going to break at any specific moment. Its just easy to see more can go wrong with an electric pump and when it does be prepared to replace it on the spot or pay to get it towed. Im just saying a mechanical pumps will give you a warning before the thing finally gives up on you an electric one will just leave you stranded until you replace it on the road you died on or pay to get it towed. Its up to you if you want to add up more problems to the many things that can go wrong when your driving on the road.

 

Just like an electric fuel pump-no idication it's going bad they often just quit. You either have to replace it on the spot (not even feasible) so you call in the hook. I dont care what part it is cheap or top shelf they all will eventually go bad, any part electrical or mechanical. There are hundreds of other things electrical that can go bad in your car at any given time, a water pump would just be one more thing to add to the list. Would I personally install one on a daily driver-no. But I've got 4+yrs now on my proform electric that's seen over 30K street/interstate miles and thousands and thousands of passes-has'nt skipped a beat and cools great to this day.

But trying to argue mechanical will give you signs and not leave you stranded as opposed to electric's just going out, you need to realize ALL things electrical weather it be a fuel pump, fans, ignition, sensors, wires can ALL do the same exact thing-stop working at the drop of a hat so IMO that's not a big valid issue to argue against them with.

 

not only that but mechanical ones can sieze up just like anything else as well.

but you do have a point IHI sure the water pump can fail at a drop of a hat. so can the ECU, fuel pump, Sensors and who knows what else.

 

If its built by man, it will break for man. :-)

I'm curious now, I know people with electric water pumps, even installed one.

Heres my question, who has an electric water pump and pounds out real miles on their car, like a daily driver or 10-20k a year for multiple years?

Is it still working, any failures to date, etc?

later
Jeremy

 

All Im going to say is check your gauges regularly because when the electric one fails they dont give you much time to notice it failed.

 

You should do that anyways since you can frag a belt at any time also. I'm sure there was alot of debate/critism when they went to serpentine since V belt set-ups were often redundant you could "get by" if you lost one due to factory routing of belts, I've lost 2 serpentines on my work trucks and your literally dead in the water since water pump is no longer working, PS is dead and your running off battery only. Guess it's no different than guys swapping out the older style mechanical fans for electrics.

But either way if your not paying attentnion to the guages your asking for trouble since they're the first indicator if anything goes bad.

 

The weep hole on a mechanical water pump is only an indicator that the pump is suffering from excessive normal wear and the seals are leaking. Just because it isn't weaping doesn't mean that catastrophic failure isn't imminent. I've had two water pumps fail on my pickups, one on a Ford diesel, and one on a Chev with an SBC. In both cases there was no prior warning, the bearings just failed and the shafts walked.

All parts fail sometimes. Sometimes there's warning, and sometimes there's not.

 

Personally I have had a few pumps go on me and I had no problem detecting it from the leaking water under my truck. I never had one seize. Just call me lucky I guess I always spotted the drippy water first. Only belt I have ever thrown was a ps pump belt but everything else worked fine. I can say I have had a timing belt go on me and that wasnt fun at all but then your screwed either way. This is about 15 years of driving.

 

Hello, This is my first time on this sight, I am a Newbie,,, I have a problem with my 91 Formula,, but I have been reading this post and I can relate to the over heating problems... My question here is my bird has two electric fans, did the 91's come that way from the factory,????... and after what I have read here, I might just go for the electric water pump.. I have some serious heat problems around here in the summer, in traffic... do you still need to use both of the electric fans with the electric water pump,????...

 

you went a little off topic there, but I'll bite since your a newb. Yes keep your dual fan setup. Electric water pumps are great for adding flow when stopped but you still gotta have the fans pulling air across the radiator to get the coolant temp back down. I'm swithcing over my stock single fan setup to an after market dual fan setup to add more cooling.