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I am in the process of planning out my 406 build, and am 'kind of' considering using an electric water pump. I know there are a good amount of choices out there, but not sure of their dependability. Is anyone running an electric water pump on your daily driver? If so, what has been your experience with them?
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
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what are your options if it breaks on the street.....only reason I dont have one, but an electric fuel pump will leave you just as stranded and I run one of those. I did almost get stranded once but was able to limp it home as it was just starting to fail. Dont know if you would notice the signs of a water pump slowly going bad
IMHO, you use an electric water pump to extract every ounce of horsepower from the engine. Great for quarter mile racing. If the car is just a street cruiser, why?
for what its worth, about 20 years ago a very good mechanic talked me into not using an electric pump or electric fans on my 383 78 pace car restoration in south florida where i was living at the time. he told me that with an aluminum radiator and the proper manual fan and functioning fan clutch, the car wouldn't be subject to electrical or mechanical cooling failure. i admit i was very hard to convince, but i agreed to replacing the original tired radiator with an aluminum one and went with the OEM cooling fan set up. the car wasn't for the drag strip, it was used as a cruiser and a street vehicle. i have to admit that i was completely flabbergasted, sitting in dead stopped, and bumper to bumper summer traffic for the first time, watching the temperature gauge anxiously, that i was amazed that the car water temperature never rose above 195 degrees. i never had a cooling issue with the car for the 12 years that i owned it after it was completed and drove it in the summer time in south florida. it was engineered not to blow it's stack, and it performed as designed (with the help of the aluminum radiator). it all comes down, in my opinion to having a well maintained vehicle.
I've had a Meziere electric water pump for at least 5 years with no problems. Street/strip car that doesn't get driven much but no issues. Meziere says about 10,000 hours or so and the pump should checked or serviced, but at my rate that would be about 15 years or so. You would be just as stranded if your mechanical water pump failed, so that is not a concern. Many hi-perf cars in my area run electric water pumps with no issues on the street........but all say Meziere is the best and most reliable.
You would be just as stranded if your mechanical water pump failed, so that is not a concern.
Sorry, but I humbly disagree with that statement. Unless you have a catastrophic event with the mechanical water pump, (highly doubtful), all it would do is start leaking, probably out of the weep hole. Stop and get a couple of gallons of water, you'll get home.
Sorry, but I humbly disagree with that statement. Unless you have a catastrophic event with the mechanical water pump, (highly doubtful), all it would do is start leaking, probably out of the weep hole. Stop and get a couple of gallons of water, you'll get home.
I've had leaky mechanical water pumps before as you described......I hardly call that a failure......but a warning......like a slow leak tire. That may not strand you. A true failure would. But, no, electric pumps are not for 100,000 mile expectations.........neither are 680 hp small blocks like mine.
Electric water pump dependability?
