High flow water pumps? What does everyone think? Worth the money? I have a 351w shoehorned into my 51 shoebox ford. I have a standard flow water pump and I am not over heating but dead of summer in texas i could see it getting up there. Because the engine is pretty big and the compartment isn't, it doesn't dissipate heat very well. Thoughts?
High flow water pumps aren't nearly as effective at reducing engine temps as increasing air flow across the radiator is. It may help, but probably not as much as the manufacturer says it will. Good Luck
coolant has to stay in contact with the jacket walls long enough to transfer heat away. Increasing flow speed sounds impressive, but the fundamentals need to be addressed first: enough airflow through the radiator (opportunity to louver the hood!) fan shroud that is well sealed to the radiator, "enough" radiator - not using the flathead radiator for that 351 are you? clean passages and core tubes -flush and fill with a 50/50 mix to prevent rust, which inhibits heat transfer.
Having wrestled with this issue on several hi-perf cars/engines incl BBC vintage road racer, max cooling is achieved "generally" by slowing water down, hence spending max time in radiator & exposed to cooling functions......most people seem to want to speed up water flow, but my experience says that is "back-asswards"......assuming you have attended to all other good advice, ie, shroud/good fan setup/good air getting to radiator/etc.......FYI my BBC Corvette vintage racer runs a 14:1 motor without a fan, as long as I'm moving on the track, no problem with engine water temps and I only have a mid-size restrictor in the thermostat housing......
he is correct on semis which are huge in cubes and power now , the water pumps are often 1:1 with the crank vs the overdriven styles of cars , a water pump will do you no good unless you can have time to absorb the heat ( also high glycol mixtures of antifreeze prevent it use af as a antifreeze agent more than a anti boil agent ) and reject the heat , make sure your A/f mixture is spot on or more water based than glycol based so it can pick up the heat and allow the radiator to reject it .
Cool. Then I won't waste the money. I had my reservations about them that's why I asked. Its running fine temp wise so I am just gonna let it ride.
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