I am doing a rebuild and flirting with the notion of an electric water pump again. My reasoning for keeping the mechanical is to ensure reliability which I still think is valid, there is far less to go wrong.

However I see the benefits of less cam bearing wear, an adjustable double roller timing set and not to mention some extra HP.

I want to hear about electric water pump failures and your guys bad experiences when they do fail so I can make a better informed decision.

 

The big thing, IMO, is when you don't catch the EWP failure or you can't pull over right away. The head gaskets are sensitive to severe overheating and can cause a lot of grief. It's up to you whether you can live with that for a daily driver.
The mechanical pump is not prone to sudden stoppage. It normall gives some warning signs.

 

Yeah, like leaking out onto the opti and causing it to go, too.

 

If you decide to go electric, check out the "waterpump watch dog". You can hook it up with your pump and it will detect voltage loss, bad ground, or excessive current draw and warn you with an audible alarm and light as soon as it happens. A little more warning vs hoping to catch your temp on the rise.

Ken R.

 

Cant find any info on this!!!

 

Bad news, the guys that made the WatchDog was Auto Control inc., and from looking at a post here back in july, it looks like they wen't out of business. Thats a bummer cause it is a nice unit. Well made and easy to hook up. Hopefully somebody picks up where they left off cause its a good idea.

Ken R.

 

One "safty" device that some guys are using (and even a kit available) is to get a 200 degree temp safty switch and install it into the head. You then can wire a siren/buzzer/warning light or all of the above to trip on if the temp ever gets over 200. That should give you enough time to pull over and shut off the engine before any damage occurs. I have personally only heard of 1 person having a failure of an EWP. I am sure there are tons of them but have never seen it first hand.

TOM B

 

My Mezeire had 60,000 miles on it when the darn relay failed....just assumed the pump went and ordered another- then we traced it to the relay...so now I have a spare pump.:lol

I have the HD and believe in them...My car lives a rough life, outside, and the mezeire done fine for 4 years and 60K.

 

I have had the "Summit" brand EWP fail on me at 12k miles. Replaced it with the meziere and no proplems since.

 

I made the switch to EWP and like it.
I used the AIR pump wiring as the circuit for the EWP. I just hope when the motor goes out that it blows the AIR circuit fuse and gives me a SES light so I can catch it in time.

 

http://ken.lowrance.com/Projects/CSI...mp/Default.htm

He has a schematic that shows how to wire up a led that will be lit when the pump is running.

 

The pics on that link for the LED don't work, but it sounds like the LED only tells you when the circuit has power, not necessarily when the pump is running. Big difference. If the pump motor fails but still has power, then the LED will stay lit. Hooking an LED up to the pump side of the relay (motor red wire) could, however, tell you if the relay fails.

 

I wouldnt rely soley on the SES light to warn you, those can take several drive cycles before they come on.

 

My car is not a daily driver, it is a weekend and vacation fun toy and I am now convinced I will get no piece of mind from the electric water pump on a trip to the beach. There are too many things that can go wrong and there are no sure fire safe-guards to handle every bad situation.

Knock the mechanical pump all you want but they are reliable and when they start to fizzle out you do get a warning sign from the weep hole. There is even something to be said for threading a nipple into the weep hole and attaching a hose to avoid drowning the optispark.

To me it ain't worth ruining a fresh 355 if the damn thing failed and my "watch-dog" did not raise the red flag. It especially is not worth it for the mild HP gains.

I see this mod being excellent for the strip car, many advantages to be had.

 

Daily driver here and never had one fail yet... not completely fail anyway. The bearing on my CSI started to get some water in it and you could hear it struggling but the pump still cycled without blowing a fuse. That pump had at least 30k on it and probably well over. The new pump now has 20k and is still going strong.

I like them but they can have obvious reliability issues... electric pumps either work or not while mechanical pumps always work even if the bearing fails.