I've found a possible solution to my conundrum: electric water pump. Autozone has one designed for a small block engine for $175. I've read that replacing the water pump with an electric one will result in a dramatic performance improvement.
Of course, I'll probably need to get a second battery if I also do the alt delete. At full power, this thing draws 5 amps.
I think I read elsewhere on here someone suggesting the use of a programmable microcontroller to modulate one of these at a lower power level, but it seems like you could just get a manual PWM controller like
this one, find a good setting for your typical cruising rpm and leave it there.
I'm open to suggestion here. I've worked with PIC micro-controllers before, and I'm not opposed to programming one, but it just seems like overkill.