Must have put this in the wrong place and the police deleted it so I'll try it here. Saw a SBC water pump at the GEM booth at the Southwest Goodguys that is 3/4" shorter than a short water pump. Booth was crowded so didn't get to ask any questions. Looks like just what I need for my 50 Chevy in order to install a shrouded electric fan. Anyone running one yet?
I don't see it on their website so will give them a call. Don't know if the pulley comes with it or not although it should for $169. It seemed to me that belt alignment might have to be worked on.
I don't see how it could be shorter than a short water pump since the pulley that you use on a short water pump is bolted to the balancer with no spacing at all.
if the pump is 3/4" shorter then the pulley "nose" would not be as long, but the belt groove would be in the same place, there-in giving space for the electric fan. the water pump pulley would look more like a crank pulley, flat. it ain't brain science...........
Spoke to GEM today and the pump comes with single groove pulley. If you have A/C, (as I do), you need a two groove and he has no plans to make one. Seems like he is loosing out on a good size customer base.
I have seen them on other than race cars but never really had a chance to talk to the owners to see how happy they were with them. My first concern would be long term reliability but guess it's not much different than relying on an electric fuel pump. I'll investigate further.
If his pulley comes off, it would be easy enough to add a second belt groove, cut off another pulley and weld on.
I just kinda dislike using special parts, especially wear parts, that I cannot easily source. Just sayin, like 10 years from now, that pump dies. GEM's either out of business, or not making these anymore. Now what do you do?? Move the engine back?? But, then, too, I'm one broke MF'er, who'se Had to fix shit like this and knows what to avoid on my personal stuff. Cosmo
Um, why can't you buy two single groove pulleys put a spacer between them use longer bolts, it would still leave room for an electric fan. ...........
Originally Posted by ROADSTER1927 How about an electric racing pump? Gary I ran an electric pump on my Hemi for a while, till it burnt up. I then installed a regular belt driven pump. The engine ran better because it can now get up to operating temp. I have an electric fan, but seldom have to turn it on.
Stacking the pulley will move the face of the second pulley forward and really close to where the stock short pump was. ( Within 1/8") Kind of defeats the purpose of the short short pump. I'd say the easiest was to cut the second pulley and weld only the grove of the second to the first.
Electric pumps are being used in various OEM applications now. But these are PWM controlled via a computer. Stand alone pump computers are available aftermarket but they ain't cheap or traditional. Electric water pumps really shine on race cars for a couple reasons. First is that at idle or low speeds they pump much more than a mechanical pump, the volume isn't dependent on engine rpm or engine even running. At idle its at least 200% more volume than a stock mechanical pump. At WOT and only at WOT the mechanical pump will pump about 200% more than the electric but rob some HP doing so. This is really handy in the staging lanes prior to your run when you don't want a heat soaked engine. Then during your WOT pass of a few seconds the engine generates a tremendous amount of heat. If you have an electric pump you can shed this heat on the return road by circulating 200% more than your buddy with a mechanical pump idling down the return road on your way to the pits or back to the staging lanes. At the pits you can run your E fan and E pump with the engine off and cool the engine back to ambient air temps quickly. Same in the staging lanes if your battery can support it.
Not having seen the water pump / pulleys, I made a guess that the 3/4" was removed from the nose of the pulley, making the pulley flat like the crank pulley. My suggestion of two single groove pulleys together was based on that premise. The two groove upper/water pump pulley would then be like a two groove crank pulley. Did I miss something? The spacer thought was to keep from crushing the middle of the pulleys, like, a slice of ham between two slices of wheat bread, that of course depends on just how the pulleys are made........
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