electric water pump...should i use restrictor???

karolko

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
I am almost ready to fire up the Stage motor and am running a Meizere 55 Gallon pump.

It will be a driven on the street and track and what I am wondering is if I should run some sort of restrictor to help the motor warm up a little faster, or will it warm up fairly quickly even without a thermostat.

I have the pump wired directly to switched ignition so it will always be on ( don't ever want to forget). I have all my XFI Aux outputs in use right now so I cannot wire it up to turn on/off at a specified temp.

Would like to hear from the boys running electric waterpumps on the street.

Adrian
 
I'm running mine exactly as you describe yours. It heats up just fine without the restrictor. I have a -16 upper hose that may be a small restriction, but I doubt it.
 
I am running a -20 upper and lower, but even then -20 is smaller than the inlet port on the waterpump.

Thanks Mike for the info.

Adrian
 
I use a 160 thermostat with a few 1/8 holes drilled in it to bypass some water.


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I am afraid that that might be putting too much strain on the electric motor, almost causing the motor to dead head all that water.

I wonder if this would cause premature motor failure when motor are stained really hard for prolonged periods of time.
 
No, absolutely not. This is because it's not a positive displacement pump. I've ran the same pump for 12+ years this way with 99% street driving to prove that out.


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well that is good news.

How long does it take for you to come to temp? and what does the temp stay at? Are you running a 35 or 55 Gallon pump
 
I was using the largest standard location block mounted pump at the time and I don't believe they make a 55 gph and more like 35 gph for the standard version or 42 gph for the HD version. http://www.meziere.com/displaycategory.aspx?id=244,332,365,366
I switched to a remote location 55 GPH pump to gain more clearance in the front of the motor. As far as time to come up to temp, obviously would depend on ambient temp but in the summer its probably about 10 minutes of running to get up to temp (160 F) and will run about 170-190 depending if the car stays moving to get air through the front mount. I found with mine that if the ambient temps are below 75 the car will hold temp better and typically stay at or below 170. On a 90 degree day it will hit 200-220 if running through slow traffic. I blame this on the front mount and also given the fact that I'm not running an auxiliary trans cooler and I think its pulling a lot of excess heat running the spragless converter on the street and the fixed line pressure at 200 psi further aggravating the problem. I ran this most recent engine configuration with both pumps, the 55 GPH and the 42 GPH with no difference. I also tried with and without the thermostat and didn't like running without because the water just moves to fast to exchange heat.
AG.
 
[QUOTE="I am afraid that that might be putting too much strain on the electric motor, almost causing the motor to dead head all that water.

I wonder if this would cause premature motor failure when motor are stained really hard for prolonged periods of time.[/QUOTE]

FYI, most of the energy requirement of a pump is for moving the fluid, not for pressuring it up. Motor power required is lowest at low flow and highest at high flow, even though the high flow discharge pressure may be a lot lower. So the dead head condition is actually where the amps drawn by the motor should be lowest. The highest amps and highest load on the motor would be free flow, where you just put a short hose in a bucket for suction and then have nothing on the discharge, just letting the water spray out onto the driveway. That being said, dead heading a pump is not a desirable thing, I'm just pointing out that it isn't a strain on the motor.

I liked the link norbs posted, good factual information there.

John
 
Couple silly questions , is the 55 gpm pump ok for a mainly street car ? I ve read mech water pumps eat up 15ish HP ? Wouldn t an electric eat up some HP because of load on your charging system ? Thank you
 
Couple silly questions , is the 55 gpm pump ok for a mainly street car ? I ve read mech water pumps eat up 15ish HP ? Wouldn t an electric eat up some HP because of load on your charging system ? Thank you
I've had an electric water pump about 10 years now. I drive my car on the street every summer and every time I get a chance. Never serviced it in any way. I do have a 200 degree coolant temp switch wired to giant warning light just in case I'm not paying attention when it stops working one day.
I don't have any proof but I believe the load is much less electrically than it would be on a belt.
 
I've had an electric water pump about 10 years now. I drive my car on the street every summer and every time I get a chance. Never serviced it in any way. I do have a 200 degree coolant temp switch wired to giant warning light just in case I'm not paying attention when it stops working one day.
I don't have any proof but I believe the load is much less electrically than it would be on a belt.
thanks for info , do you know brand and model ?
 
I kinda like it. But then again, I kinda don't.
If I was building a drag car or road racer from scratch it would definitely be something I would consider. It then could be planned into the whole scheme of things. But for many (myself included) it may seem to make more sense to have a bolt on/engine mounted replacement electric WP. If your whole set up is already in place and you have a ton of stuff incorporated into you set-up, a little more re-configuring might be needed to use this piece.
 

You know, I personally like the looks of that setup. I imagine that it would make it reasonably easy to set up a reverse flow cooling system, where the heads get the coldest water first. The water then flows to the block and on back to the radiator. My impression is that colder water in the heads might offer some performance advantage, in regards to helping with detonation resistance. I could be wrong about that, or maybe the magnitude of the benefit isn't worth the effort involved. But this pump looks to me like it would reduce the effort. Food for thought...

John
 
Years ago that was the talk that they were not good for everyday driving .after reading that link things changed . Anyone have a pic of it installed on our 3.8s
 
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