Engine and Transmission Tech

I'd like to see some different arrangements for Buick/Olds 215 and Rover 3.5/4.0/5.2 water pump impellers.

There are several styles and I have examples of three of them, but what I have seen are
- 3 straight vane open back,
-3 vane parabolic,
-6 straight vane open back,
-6 vane parabolic,
-6 vane closed back

Then there are long nose and short nose designs, some with a pot metal cone (like the one below) to screw a pulley onto the outer diameter with three screws, then the fan to the nose with 4 bolts; some with an exposed shaft and bolt flange to attach a cone style pulley and fan with 4 bolts

It is my understanding that the closed back design is actually a high flow impeller. This was the long nose closed back impeller style originally installed on the Rover 3.5 SD1 engine and I think the 215's

This one, short nose with a pot metal cone is supposedly a style from a Jeep V6 from what I have been told, and "should" be a high flow design. I need a short nose pump to fit behind the radiator.

Now I am using a short nose with the 4 bolt flange, an over speed billet pulley, with the 6 vane parabolic open back.
What are you all using on your Aluminum V8's?

ummm... I'm just using a regular Buick 215 pump and pulley. Works fine for me. (All the evidence suggests that air flow matters MUCH more than water flow. So long as you don't have a cavitation issue, you should be fine.)

I've got a rare, vintage, "unpublished" water pump article here: [www.britishv8.org]

Great photos! The reason I haven't published this one is, frankly, I don't have much faith the photo captions are correct. Kurt was under-the-weather back when I was trying to match old photos to old notes. Maybe we can get Kurt to have another look now...

Moderator Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> I've got a rare, vintage, "unpublished" water pump
> article here:
> [www.britishv8.org]-
> 215.htm
>
> Great photos! The reason I haven't published this
> one is, frankly, I don't have much faith the photo
> captions are correct. Kurt was under-the-weather
> back when I was trying to match old photos to old
> notes. Maybe we can get Kurt to have another look
> now...

Great start to a needed article.

I can probably add a few photos in the intent of the article and add one or two part numbers, say the OE pump for the Rover SD motor.

My added flow really helped at low RPM which is where I needed it. The 2900 CFM fan was only part of the solution. The final solution was to overspeed the pump and to install a high flow thermostat. We really need thermostats in Colorado if you drive in the mountains and expect th have the engine maintain temperature while going down huge mountains.

Glenn

The 300 water pump looks right. It has a cast iron body, the inlet is pointed more down and angled back some which gives more belt clearance, and the pilot pins are a different size, smaller I think.

Jim

Huh. I thought they were all aluminum... Interesting. That V6 pump looks good. I've got the Jeep pump with the short flange. I'm not sure if I'm going to use it or not yet. I think I'm going to have some trouble lining up pulleys.

I had an NOS Buick 215 pump initially--naturally :), but I put it on there before my alternator. Once I sussed the latter (with a D&D bracket affixing to the front of the cylinder head), I realized that I needed a flange and hole off the top of the waterpump housing that the NOS piece didn't have--my alternator belt tension arm bolts to this.

Because the Buick V6s use basically the same timing cover, I got a water pump from a late '70s/early '80s Buick Skyhawk, of all things, and that's what's on there. I bought this right from stock at a local auto parts store. It's been a little while since I had it in my hand, but I believe it (and my NOS piece) look like the item yoiu have pictured to the right in your post.

Kris