DIY electric water pump - on the cheap

[oil pan 4]

I say try to see how low you can go.
I installed the Meziere electric water pump rated for 55gpm and 7 amps on the 7.4L suburban.
At full power the pump moves coolant vigorously through the bypass, seemed like a little much. So I installed a 1 ohm 300w resistor in series with the pump circuit.
That brought it from 7 amps down to 4.6 amps and it only warms up to about 150'F.
A Meziere 35gpm pump uses 5 amps.
I believe the minimum voltage level across the pump Meziere recommends is 6 volts.

Another thing you can try for warming up faster and saving some power if you are running an alt delete is using a time delay to hold the pump off for say 30 seconds after cold starting. That is what I am going to do, now that I am going to run an alt delete, I find my self counting the joules and obsessing over amps.

[Daox]

Thanks. That is what I'll be trying to do once its installed and tested. I'm quite interested in seeing just how much power the OEM pump uses at different engine rpm ranges.

[oil pan 4]

If you wanted to run a pump low speed and high speed control I am using Reznor Fenwal thermoswitches.
There are 150'F and only $10 on ebay. Search "Reznor fenwal switch" and only one thing will come up.

[serialk11r]

I've been looking into adding hobby electric motors to cars, and realized that a really easy way to do this could just be to use an RC outrunner.

For example:
HL W60 35/ 200KV 6S Outrunner Brushless Motor for RC Multicopter-in Parts & Accessories from Toys & Hobbies on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

That thing is designed to run at 22.2V (6 lithium polymer cells), 27A stall current. At an automotive 14V, with no load it would be turning at 2800rpm or so but I doubt it has enough power for that. Back of the napkin calculation says if the pump has enough resistance to make it turn at 1400rpm, it would be drawing around 8.5 amps, perhaps 120 watts demanded from the battery/alternator.

You could drill a few holes into a metal disc to bolt it to the pump that gets rid of the pulley, and it would stick out only 2 inches from where the original pulley was. Since the diameter of that motor is smaller than the diameter of the pump, you could easily make a bracket with 2 pieces of metal.

Add a total overkill brushless motor controller for 20 bucks:
Turnigy AE-45A Brushless ESC

Running it at just 10V default (with switch to full power under throttle) would probably reduce power draw to 40-50W, which is fantastic.

[Daox]

While I wait to get the garage back from the Jetta repair, I've re-thought my shaft attachment method. The old way was more complex and didn't hold the pulley perpendicular to the shaft as well as I had hoped. The new way is simpler and works better from my little bit of testing thus far.

The new attachment method uses a tapered bushing that squeezes down on the shaft as its tightened. Its a common industrial method that works quite well.

The pulley will have a female shaped tapered bore.






The bushing has a male tapered bore.





You put screws through the bushing that engage into the pulley. The tighter it goes, the more it squeezes the shaft.





I'll be printing new parts soon, but I need my garage back to work on the Metro...

[DragBean]

Well That's good that this magically comes up because my neuro-transistor modulator just arrived and I'm thinking let's be honest... If you never had to supply the electrical requierments of your car then you'd be looking at most 15% gains (At least %%5 percento any driving cond.+ion. Me, I'd be stoked to get 10 mpg more, probably at least %00 hundred more per year. So yeah, I'm gonna.. pause.. **** I hope my 200 watter solar panel can keep me going through the night... unbelt and drive my H20 pump electron style.

[ctgottapee]

If you look at some of the Toyota articles and similar, the efficiency is gained by electronically controlling the pump to run in a specific temp range for the engine to reach peak efficiency and emissions (closed loop).

It's really efficient to piggy back on the spinning motor to spin a pump wheel.
(Of course if you carry a lot of battery power with you charge at home, you can cheat a bit with an electric pump)

Probably the most fuel efficient way to go would be to change the water pump pulley size / build so that it pumps the minimum flow required at typical efficient driving.
Then add on electrical pumps to boost flow when needed (although creating the electronics to monitor and adjust this wouldn't be easy)

Originally Posted by Daox

There are still other 'nice' benefits like having heat when the engine is off in winter, and cycling the pump while preheating with a block heater. But, if those are the only real benefits it really cuts down on the 'bang for the buck/time/pain in the butt' factor.

[oil pan 4]

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ncy-30061.html

Don't worry about belt losses.

[oil pan 4]

One may be able to use a Bosch aftercooler water pump for a Cobra or SVT lightning.
They use 2.5 to 3.5 amps and flow about 5.3gpm and you should be able to get them for under $100.
Only problem is I don't know what the max temperature rating is for these pumps.

[Daox]

Got a link to one of these pumps?