| My thoughts: The OEM pump uses an incredibly inefficient design for the impeller wheel; it is just a stamped and folded piece of steel with straight blades. I am working on a pattern for a new impeller wheel that looks strikingly similar to this: 
as compared to this:
 Once I've got the pattern made and my molding sand issue cleared up, I will cast the impeller wheel with a new housing. So I'm thinking that although the electric motor will be using the alternator for its source of power (which will draw its power from the crank), the impeller efficiency will likely give me a break-even condition. Even if it doesn't, we aren't talking about any large power benefits. But, one thing I dont like about the belt driven pump is how the belt loads the crankshaft. If you ever pull apart a VG, take a close look at the wear pattern on the front upper main crank bearing. In many that I have seen, there is obvious wear on the top bearing - more so than on the other main bearings. This is telling me that the drive belts are loading the crank against the top bearing to some degree. I wont have either a mechanically driven water pump or a mechanically driven power steering pump, so the vertical loading from the belts has been eliminated. If you look closely at the alternator and AC compressor pulleys, they centerline right through the crankshaft, so if they are equally tightened, the net side-load effect on the crankshaft is reduced to very little. Removing this pulley and belt will clean up the appearance of the front of the engine and also make it easier to work on since the mechanical fan assembly will also be removed. One of my next projects is a fiberglass radiator shroud to enclose the electric fan and take full advantage of the radiator's core, but that's another time. The other nice thing about an electric water pump in combination with an electric fan is the ability to continue running the entire cooling system while the engine is off. This will enhance my dyno tuning experience to some degree as I wont have to wait as long between pulls (intercoolers cool down very quickly too), and when I take it to the strip, I can cool the engine down in the staging lanes better.
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[ agpowers@bellsouth.net ] Enthusiasts soon understand each other. --W. Irving.
Are you an enthusiast? If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
Albert Einstein
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