Electric water pump

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by mans

I'd love to remove all engine accessories, however I can only remove the alt and engine water pump...

I kinda need my power steering and a/c

(please understand this, although I'm not sure how people survived without a/c in their cars during those summers before car a/c became popular in the 70's-80's. hey they must have had a/c in those horse drawn carriages in the 1800's too cuz the summers were hot then as well and how can u survive without a/c.. ye we're spoiled today :-))

is it possible to convert the power steering and a/c to 12v electric as well?

I think electric power steering is one of those really tricky things, most cars are opting for hydraulic for the better feel. However the new BRZ/FRS/86 is supposed to have an amazing electric steering rack. You could probably reduce the speed of the hydraulic pump to reduce the power consumption of the steering.
As for A/C, you could have A/C only turn on when idling/engine braking. BMW's new mild hybrid system basically uses the idea that we can power all accessories with a small portion of energy lost to braking.

[Nerys]

remember I am talking about a 94 XFI

NO power steering pump and NO AC

the ONLY accessories I have are alternator and water pump. so for me nothing else changes.

I am replacing the crank pulley with an aluminum pulley. this will lighten my rotational mass quite a bit and I can still "put" a belt on if I really need too.

YES I agree sometimes just too hot without AC learned that the hard way in the metro last summer.

thats why I am getting a tracker as soon as I can. so when it "REALLY" is just too hot to be without AC I can drive the tracker.

if you really want to go electric steering this is probably easier than you think.

you ONLY need to power the steering pump while not moving or moving slowly. once your at highway speed there is flat out NO reason to run the power steering pump. even not intended to be manual cars are usually pretty easy to steer at highway speeds on smaller lighter cars. I would confirm this first though :-)

BUT if you running a car with all this stuff you need to make sure of the kind of typical POWER DRAW your going to experience. remember a metro is a power sipper. the electric water pump takes about as much power as "the rest of the car" takes ie not much.

Lights are an issue which is why I am going LED including the headlights if I can figure out how to cheaply and legally :-)

the BLOWER is the biggest issue. when its damp out IE foggy windows you have to use the blower and heat (no ac remember) and its a power PIG :-)

[oil pan 4]

If any one had a diesel they could use water injection to further down size their cooling system needs.

[Miller88]

I'm not sure how hard it would be to modify the pullies - but how about rigging the PS and alternator up to a clutch setup? Like the AC Compressor. Maneuvering in parking spots, engage the PS pump as soon as you're moving, disengage it. Same for the alternator. Start the vehicle, let the alternator run for a minute to charge the battery back up then disengage. Going down the highway just monitor the usage.

The water pump could possibly be rigged up to a viscous fan clutch. The faster the motor spins, the slower the pump spins. At 2000 RPM with it almost disengaged, it can probably move enough water to keep "hot spots" from forming.

[Josh8loop]

Back to the original topic, VW, Audi, mercedes and other manufacturers make an auxillary 12 volt coolant pump. The VW ones in particular(and perhaps others) use magnetic coupling from the motor to the impeller itself, so that reduces the chance of leaks developing. I don't see why you couldn't run 2 or 3 in parallel and use some electronics to control when they turn on. You could run one continuously, and kick in the others when needed or some similar setup. I always wanted to get my hands on one of these!