Electric or belt pump

[69ratfed]

Question for you 396,427,454 Chevy owners. If you were going to put a new water pump on today which one would you put on, electric or belt and what's your reasoning? Plus which brand? I might be needing one pretty soon. My car is street driven and I have a 454, 10-1, Dart heads, 634 lift cam, TCI turbo 400, 3800 stahl and 355 gears.
Thanks for the opinions.

[z28orshoot]

i have a street driven 3days a week 496/ blower. i would tell you that if it is a street car then do a belt setup.

the reasons being.....
1. easy access to accessory brackets, pulleys, etc
2. no special spacers or shims to get the alternator, ps,ac pump etc to line up corectly.
3. less amp draw on the charging system
4. if it goes out on the road, local parts stores have a "temporary fix" to get you home. most stores dont stock bbc electric h2o pumps.
5. price. a good electric will run $250+



as far as brand i like the edelbrock vic series. it cools my car just fine. that and a big radiator cools like no other. in bumper to bumper i have never seen over 210 and that was with 103 outside air temps in texas

[ProBell]

I to would also go belt driven on the street. I have not heard of to many people that were happy with electric pumps if they put a lot of miles on.
I had good luck with the GM aluminum water pump. It is in the GM performance catalog.
Randy

[MonzaRacer]

Well as for me I got a 19.99 reman water pump at local Guarantee Auto/Nationwise before it closed up as i was getting my parts together.
I put my 402(030, 10.5 forged, polished rods, steel crank, 290 casting oval ports/small valves for torque. And I got to do most of the machine work my self. This went in a 70 Monte carlo with a THM 350 9 weeks after wrecking my V8Ford Range and a broken hip/collar bone.
At 10 weeks it was in and started driving it every day from Burns City to Oakland City, about 50 miles one way. it has never gave me heating problems when it was in a car. I even got rid of big shroud and flex fan and used an electric from a Olds Firenza/Pontiac Grand Am. I used a temp sensor from a chrysler(it fit the head port) and this engine is now waitning for another body to reside in and still wears self same reman water pump.
Use a good name brand water pump of your choice, set up a good thermostat controled electric fan/fans and if it was me I would give Evans Cooling a call. While EG/Water is good the NPG+ or NPG R will make your cooling system pretty much bullet proof and for the cost of the electric fan you can buy the NPG R (it works better in stock type radiators) If you buy a properly set up radiator for the NPG+ its an awesome tool in keeping cool. Yes expensive but at least you can replace the pump on the road if it happens to fail.
I am trying to arrange a group buy through a local car club but the deal is slowing as its winter and no one is racing.
Good luck.
Lee Abel
AFTERMARKET PERFORMANCE

[69ratfed]

I am not familiar with NPG+ or NPG R. What might that be?

[GetMore]

Go to Evans Cooling ( http://evanscooling.com/ ) for more info, but NPG stands for Non-aqueous Propylene Glycol. It is a coolant/antifreeze that uses NO water and has a higher boiling point and lower condensing point than water or water/antifreeze mixtures.
It can be run in a zero pressure or low pressure system and not boil over, so it drastically reduces the potential for leaks.
It also carries more heat than 50/50, so it can help cool the engine better in some cases.

The main advantage is that in a high heat area, like the cooling jackets around the exhaust valve it will not boil like regular coolant can. Once the coolant has boiled those bubbles tend to stick, instead of being washed away, and actually insulate the meatl, keeping the coolant from doing its job and cooling the head. This means that that spot gets hotter than it should.
NPG, by benefit of its significantly higher boiling point, keeps that area cooler, and can allow more timing and compression, resulting in more power.
NPG+ is a newer, lower viscosity version of the standard NPG, while NPG-R is the racing version and should be replaced avery few years.
The standard NPG needs a high volume water pump, or overdrive pulleys on the stock pump because it is thicker than water/antifreeze.

[Paul69camaro]

I agree with everyone also, get a mechanical pump for sure. I've had awesome results with my pump from stewart components.

[speedster]

Electric is nice for racing. You can run an electric water pump and fans and cool the engine while shut down.

[69ratfed]

Thanks guys for the info. I have not done anything yet but I need to get started because spring is right around the corner. We did notice that both the water pump and crank pulley are the same size. Do you guys think if I put a smaller pulley on water pump that I would benefit from it as far as cooling.

thanks again.