Actually, electric water pumps on a street car aren't a bad choice. Certainly they're expensive, and not the best $/hp value, but when most everything else is done it can be worth it. Consider that a water pump is a hydraulic pump and can rob quite a bit of power, which can equate to better mileage under cruise as well as increased performance. And the good ones have been proven to be more reliable than a mechanical. They both have an impellar and a shaft riding on bearings, but with the electric it's run off an electric motor, which have been proven to be VERY reliable due to the near total lack of moving parts. And a mechanical water pump has belt tension, whuch puts a side load on the pump shaft, increasing the rate of bearing and seal wear, leading to earlier failure. Yeah, electric motors can wear out eventually, things in them can break, but generally speaking most electrical stuff is more reliable than a mechanical counterpart. And the increased load on the alternator to run an electric is less than the power freed from not running a hydraulic pump from the crankshaft.

And if you think that water pumps don't rob that much power, how do you think these magazines get away with these supposed 400+hp ratings on a stock bottom end 302 with just a head and intake swap? It's cuz they're run on a dyno with no accessories, they run just an electric water pump and power it from an external source. And also Meziere for example, provides a 3 year unlimited mile warranty on their street pumps, and are garunteed for 3,000+ hours of opperation, and in testing have gone in some cases for over 10,000 hours without problem. I wouldn't be suprised if in the near future that the auto manufacturers bite the cost of e-water pumps in order to squeeze the extra mileage out of the engines, I've heard some talk of it recently.

Now, I'm not saying go out and buy an electric pump, cuz mechanical work very well, but if you have the money for them and want the extra performance, and there's not a better way to spend $300 then you might as well. And when you consider that every little bit adds up....e-water pump + lighter valves + lighter(like Beehive or LS) springs + lighter pushrods + lighter pistons/rods and on and on, it all adds up in the end to rather significant gains if you can afford it at the time.

 

I'm with JMD as well. Unless it's a strip car, there's no need. A nice aluminum high-flow water pump (I like my Weiand) will be lighter than stock and work just fine for you, as well as being MUCH less expensive.

 

needed - no, wanted...well that depends on your budget.

 

Haha, yeah, wanted is definately a budget issue. Fwiw though I'm running a mechanical until such time as I have spare funds floating around to get an electric. Also going to electric fan/pump clears up a bunch of clutter in front of the engine. But it's classified in my "would be nice to have" file right now.....along with about 5,000 other things.

 

yeh the old "would be nice" file takes about 3 gigs of computer space

needs [sm=teetertooter.gif]wants

so many choices, so little cash