EWP on a DD?
 

so it seems to be about time for a new WP and i am curious as to if it is an ok idea to put a meziere HD water pump into my semi daily driver(i don't drive it everywhere every day but i drive it a decent amount~7000-8000 a year). the meziere and the oem replacement are fairly similiar in price so i figure now would be an appropriate time to upgrade. ill be doing a clutch and headers swap soon so while i am at it i was thinking about an EWP and OEM GM opti. I have read that they can fail, but was wondering if i stick a LED indicator light so if/when it does fail i will know immediately that would help? i have read it is a worth while mod hp wise, but not the best for DD. I have read good things about the meziere compared to the slightly cheaper CSR, and was wondering if the mezeire is a reliable pump for a semi dd. if done a good bit of searching and reading but would like to hear some specific pros and cons. Thanks.

All pros really, no real cons per say, great upgrade.

Even with a dead pump your led will stay "on"

I scrap my motors because of a faulty ewp.I was in heavy traffic with no exit really close to me.

Result: i overheat,scrap the head gasket and was beginning to hydroluck so....

The 9-10 whp that give an ewp is worthless in my opinion on a street car.

If the stock one begin to fail ,you will still have plenty of time to take the car home and change it without any motor damage.

My 2 cents :judge:

No problems with it on my DD after 20k miles.

Weither you have an EWP or a mechanical pump, if it goes out you are in the same boat.
Park it, fix it or tow it.

Driving around with your temp over towards the 250* mark is a great way to warp your heads or at least blow the head gasket.

If you get stuck in gridlock traffic and can't park it ... that's just a bad place to be.
Would a mechanical pump have saved "always faster"? Maybe ..

That's a damn good 2 cents worth I have to admit. I've never heard of a bad story till yours man, that sucks man. I would venture to say it's more like 3-4 rwhp. Perhaps not worth it to many folks.

I want to hear more on this, because I have not made a decision yet either. What is really pushing me towards EWP is the timing chain selection. Your pretty much stuck with LT4ED unless you use EWP

Tell Me! I once lost an aluminum headed engine when the single electric fan motor went out. I was stuck in traffic during a heavy thunderstorm and couldn't get pulled over. In hind sight I later wished that I had just shut it down and pissed off thousands of people.

I will have no problems shutting down shop on the freeway, when it comes to thousands of dollars.

Here in houston they will tow you 3 miles to get you off the freeway. They actually force you to be towed off.

Does anyone know how the EWP fail? ie. do the motors just seize or do the brushes get wore out and then they stop working. thanks.

I would assume they fail from the brushes getting warn out. I have had the same EWP on my car for 5 years, with no problems. On the other hand I have went through 3 flex a lite syclone cooling fans. :bang:

Brush failure or the bearings seize. I actually have an elec. H20 pump to go on my Z, but am still hesitant even though I've ran one on the street before. I had a buddy blow a head gasket on a forged 355, and I'm just bolt ons, but don't want the headache.

if you keep an eye on the temp gauge it should be fine i would think no? if you see it start to rise shut the motor off and tow it. to blow a headgasket you have to have it overheating for a bit and even longer to warp a head or damage the block right? is the 5 or 10 hp not worth the risk or is the risk pretty small.

If we were talking iron headed engines here, I would agree with your statement. Aluminum heads are pretty fragile when it comes to overheating.

Yep it suck really bad.After putting so much money in my car(look sig) my motor overheat because of a faulty ewp.It was less then 4k olds and the bearing seize :eyes:

I admit that for a drag car its perfect but now i got a brand new LT4 motor with a mechanical pump and peace of mind :devil:

Actually yes but...In the first undred miles you check your gauge very often to be sure that there is no problem then you started to trust it and look at the gauge less often an then you get into high speed race or in heavy traffic and its too late.I can tell you that it didnt take that much time to overheat and warped my head,blow the head gasket and since it was beginning to hydrolock the crank bend a little(thousand of an inch) :bang: .

Thats just my opinion.I ve heard a lot of peaple having ewp for a long time 20k or more without any problem but i ve also read a lot of member on camaroz28.com that blow there head gasket because of a faulty ewp.

At the end its your choice.My mind is set and my car will never ever see another ewp :judge:

a csr is going on my car mostly because of the leakage problems ALL the mechanical pumps have. i dont really care about the power gains, mostly just opti life as well as timing chain selection. i check my temp gauge all the time in my 04 colorado daily driver. just a habit of mine to keep up on whats going on with my vehicles.

I always check my guages..ALWAYS making sure oil pressure is good..oil temp is good(yes i have an oil temp guage) water temp...everything...if you get in the habbit of always making sure everything is good..then there should be no problem..as soon as you see any un normal rise in temp..shut it down before you do something stupid..its alot easier for us guys with 160* thermos(and im sure everyone with an EWP has a 160)..so its not like the engine is going to blow up immediately AFTER it dies...and the pump dying is like anything else..sometimes you just get a shitty unit and theres nothing you can do about that..same goes with clutches and engines..but you dont see people staying stock for that reason.

Guy named Thomas Fish was building idiot lights for ewps. Do a search. However, I don't know if he's made another run of them in a while.

Good point man! Well there is a mod somewhere online, someone on camaroz28.com was selling it for like $50 bucks and it has an 80db alarm that buzzes inside when your EWP fails, nice prevention if you forget to look at your gauge. I'm glued to all of them, but would like to add this to my build eventually. Anyone have some info on the alarm let me know please!

That does sound like a killer system. I like the alarm idea.

I would think that most people look at there guages, at least id hope they do. :)

Tony.

Ive run the Meziere EWP for a few years. Had a couple fail too. But if you watch your gauge your fine. Ive never had a problem arise from the pump failing. If your gonna sit in traffic, and watch your temp gauge climb without shutting down your a friggin idiot.

I've been on my CSR for about 30K. Not one issue. If it goes out i'll buy another, alot easier to swap and hell whats there to do with these cars except work on them and enjoy them while ya can

I've seen people burn there motor to the ground over a stat sticking so any cheap $15 part can do it. if you dont watch your gauges in these cars your not watchig your butt

I think if I really wanted the EWP for DD I would at least put on idiot light and a buzzer that would go off at a given temp.

I wanted to get really creative I would what some racer do, and that is put on an engine kill at a given temperature.

i do keep a close eye on my gauges, so if it did fail i would catch it quite quickly and obviously shut down immediately. i think i am going to go for it, and see if i can't get the light and buzzer set up as well for added protection. so to you folks running them how much of a seat of the pants difference do you feel? and for a daily driver i just assumed the HD 55 gph would be better than the 42 gph unit is this correct? more flow=better right?

I know when i was getting my coolant issue worked out with the new motor( wasnt bleeding it right) the car got hot and it wouldnt start after it got hot. I think there is a way to get the car to shut down if temps get to high.

Whoa...that's a little harsh! Depending on the situation shutting down in traffic could make you an even bigger idiot. I would rather repair an engine than cause a accident.

When it happened to me, it was my first time running hot with an aluminum headed engine. Based on my experience with iron headed old school sbc's, I was shocked that any damage occured. Since traffic was barely moving in my case, I probably could have safely shut down without making it to the side, but I made a poor decision. Does that make me a friggin idiot?

i run one with no problem

Yeah the alarm things sounds like the way to go. We need to hunt down that guy, and at least get a DIY if he doesn't want to make them.

email Spartus@ThomasFish.com
He makes a kit that has a green led light that stays lit as long as power is being supplied to the pump. A red led light will light up if flow stops in case the pump fails. He operates from ImpalaSS.com
He mainly makes them for the LT1 crowd but says several with LS1s have bought them and used them w/out fitment issues. They are $60.

Im running one with my Double Roller and havent had an issue yet. I do keep my eyes on that gauges all the time. I have always been like that!

Razor_
I wasnt directing that towards you. Just idiots in general. I agree that sometimes it can be dangerous to just shut down. Like in the middle lane on a 3-lane or more highway.

But you'd be amazed what kinda room you can get to veer off the road if you flick on your hazards. I use my hazards to get people off my ass, just flick them on and watch the 'drafter' ease back away from you. People to the sides of me even slow down when I do it.

My apologese for coming off "harshly"... I thought I was just pointing out the obvious common sense answer to the topic starters questions.

To the topic starter, I did have a EWP start leaking just before teh 1yr warranty ended... I bought a new one and sent the original one back to Meziere for a rebuild. Now I have a perfectly good one sitting on the shelf in case the one thats on there has problems. That allows me to keep driving the car while the bad pump gets fixed by Meziere.

I have one on my wifes 94 Impala SS (DD). We had one issue, the inline fuse. There is no question that you use a realy system and keep an extra couple of fuses in the glovebox. It came with a 20 amp, I put now have a 30 amp in it. It uses a 30 amp relay so either the fuse will blow or the realy will trip.

A street pump is rated to a life span os @ 3500 hrs. That equates to @ 45,000 miles. A street pump also pumps @ 35 gpm all the time. That equates to a mechanical pump running at the engine rpms of 6200. You do the math.

An easy way to watch the guages is use a gauge pod with a temp gauge in it. It's always right in your face. Your SES light should come on @ 240 anyway. No disrespect to anyone, but that's why they're called idiot lights, so you don't make an idotic mistake. I did a time or 2, (damn traffic, radio, cell phone, etc)

Not questioning your math at all but I wonder as to why some people w/ the EWP overheat in stop and go traffic IF that pump is 35 gpm and that being equivalent to 6200rpm something else is wrong then.

The overheating in stop and go traffic is due to no airflow thru the radiator, doesn't matter how much coolant is flowing if there is no air flow to take the heat away.

And the temp climb would happen with or without the EWP in such a case...

I noticed that my car ran cooler in city driving conditions, and few degrees warmer on the interstate.

Now that the A/C is out it takes forever to warm up!

If your cooling fans are not working or if you have the wrong water/coolant mix, absolutely.
Same issue no matter what kind of pump you run.
A DD should be able to handle hot weather and slow traffic with either setup.

Now, if the pump (mechanical or electric) fails in traffic no amount of cooling fans will save you.