DIY electric water pump - on the cheap

[Daox]

Haha, I thought I had it set to public... oh well. Its fixed now. Thanks for telling me!

[Ardent]

Originally Posted by Daox

This simulates 500 rpm increments of 0-6000 rpm. The same program will be run once the motor is installed on the car to measure the load of the water pump at the different rpms.

Will you then reference pump speed to coolant temperature?

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Daox

3hp would be 5.4%!

As oilpan noted though, his pumps pull less than 100W, so only a fraction of a horsepower.

That is just my electric pump running at 14 volts on my twin turbo diesel. I use a Meziere 55gpm electric water pump made to cool big block chevy engines.
This water pump cools the big diesel engine and 2 large water cooled turbochargers and does a pretty good job.
A small 4 cylinder car could use a lot less water pump. I wouldn't be surprised if a 30 to 50 watt pump was more than enough.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by Daox

3hp would be 5.4%!

As oilpan noted though, his pumps pull less than 100W, so only a fraction of a horsepower.

But those are electric pumps at constant speed!

For a big V8 the mechanical pump pulls a few hp at high rpm for sure, I extrapolated cruising/idle consumption numbers for the same pump to be in the low hundreds of watts depending on speed of course.

So I think you'll definitely pick up like 1-2hp at the top end, maybe more, and at low speed conditions it'll be like removing a large chunk of your electrical load.

[Daox]

Originally Posted by Ardent

Will you then reference pump speed to coolant temperature?

Yep. After I do the testing, I will load up a new program into the arduino that'll control the pump speed based off of coolant temperature and engine load. It also will pay attention to if the engine is running or not, so the pump stays running (but slower) during EOC so I have heat in winter with the engine off, yay.

I talked about the program and its behavior earlier in this thread.

[Daox]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

But those are electric pumps at constant speed!

For a big V8 the mechanical pump pulls a few hp at high rpm for sure, I extrapolated cruising/idle consumption numbers for the same pump to be in the low hundreds of watts depending on speed of course.

So I think you'll definitely pick up like 1-2hp at the top end, maybe more, and at low speed conditions it'll be like removing a large chunk of your electrical load.

Yeah, I've heard this same thing from the 'performance' sites I went to while researching the idea. It'll be very interesting to see what the test shows. I certainly hope there is a 1-2hp gain. That would be great.

[Ardent]

Originally Posted by Daox

I talked about the program and its behavior earlier in this thread.

Oops. Missed that! Thanks.

[oil pan 4]

Being able to run the heat while the engine is off is pretty neat.

Being able to use this to heat the engine not burning any fuel will be nice.
Coolant heater for impatient people - Page 4 - Diesel Place : Chevrolet and GMC Diesel Truck Forums
My 18,000BTU/hr 5,500w coolant heater.

[Daox]

How fast does heating the cabin cool off your engine Oil Pan? Obviously, our engines are slightly different in size, but it would be interesting to compare. On the Prius, you can definitely drop coolant temps in winter with the cabin heater. I'm assuming the Metro will be slightly better due to having an iron block.

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by Daox

I'm assuming the Metro will be slightly better due to having an iron block.

It's aluminum too!