Roverbeam Chad McNeely N.E. MO (75 posts) Registered: 06/09/2021 06:03PM Main British Car: Alpine S4 Rover 4.0 |
Electric water pump, Rover V8
Hi, I’m slowly making a build plan for the engine in my garage. My plan is to make it as affordably full-race as my resources allow, without making it undrivable for weekend jaunts in the country.
I haven’t torn the motor apart yet, so can anyone familiar with the stock WP picture how it could be deleted? Just a blanking plate, or remove the guts of the pump and put the old cover back on? I’m attracted to the HP savings, as well as easier small-car packaging by mounting the WP remotely. (With an electric fan, I’ll just have the alternator and oil pump on the front of the engine…) Reasonable idea, or any thoughts against? Thanks! -Chad |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
I have a 4.6 with the intermediate cover and am considering using a pierburg electric water pump so as not to use the serpentine belt. I was thinking about gutting the old water pump also. Will keep watching your efforts as a possible solution fo my situation
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waterbucket Philip Waterman England (112 posts) Registered: 07/30/2011 01:08PM Main British Car: 1972 MGB GT |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
I bought a brand new Pierburg CWA 200 water pump a couple of weeks ago for just £89 (about $125) search on ebay under "BMW electric water pump" there were two brand new genuine pumps for less than some used ones. Here is some useful info regarding them;
[www.miataturbo.net] and from Tecomotive; [tecomotive.com] [tecomotive.com] Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2021 03:48PM by waterbucket. |
waterbucket Philip Waterman England (112 posts) Registered: 07/30/2011 01:08PM Main British Car: 1972 MGB GT |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
Despite what some on the other forum might think I do not spend all of my time on Ebay, but I have a slowly diminishing list of parts that I still need and in the UK it's the place to go. Health and safety regs have effectively closed down the "pick and pull" scrapyards to be replaced with on the shelf second hand parts, already cleaned with prices to match.
A Pierburg water pump was one of the things that I wanted and one day I was looking and there were two genuine pumps not Chinese copies, one with a slightly damaged power socket was £89 + £5 shipping, the other was in an auction and I got it for £99 including shipping and it included a new thermostat assembly. Despite carefull wrapping it arrived with exactly the same damage to the connecter socket! |
Roverbeam Chad McNeely N.E. MO (75 posts) Registered: 06/09/2021 06:03PM Main British Car: Alpine S4 Rover 4.0 |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
I wonder if Meziere will sell their Buick water pump backing plate separately?
For a remote pump (I’ve now got a Pierburg/Tecomotive combo, thanks to your recommendations), running a pair of water hoses to the holes provided seems like a neat solution. Or just cut the plate out of alum plate and drill/tap the needed holes, for that ‘fabricated’ vs ‘store bought’ look… [www.meziere.com] |
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Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
Roverbeam can you post photos of your modifications and assembly mounted to the front cover. I still would like to convert my 4.6 to the pierburg pump. Seems to be a less cumbersome solution
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Roverbeam Chad McNeely N.E. MO (75 posts) Registered: 06/09/2021 06:03PM Main British Car: Alpine S4 Rover 4.0 |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
Nope, it's all still a collection of parts and plans.
I did draw it though, based on the Rover cad model posted in the "pub" forum on this site. This is the stock water pump deleted, and something like the Meziere backing plate installed, to which the remote water pump's outlet will be plumbed, into the two large holes shown on the blue plate: |
DiDueColpi Fred Key West coast - Canada (1365 posts) Registered: 05/14/2010 03:06AM Main British Car: I really thought that I'd be an action figure by now! |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
If it where my engine, I would build a block off plate out of 1/4 inch aluminum. Simple enough to do at home with a jigsaw and a metal blade. Rub some candle wax on your cut line and it will cut like butter.
I would then give it a single inlet located in the center, (where the center of the impeller used to be). The contours in the timing cover will evenly distribute the coolant to the west and east sides of the block. Live like you mean it. Fred |
Roverbeam Chad McNeely N.E. MO (75 posts) Registered: 06/09/2021 06:03PM Main British Car: Alpine S4 Rover 4.0 |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
I wondered at using a single hole too, as I stared at the timing cover. I just figured Meziere had a good reason for their two holes.
I showed it ‘blue anodized’ so it would be clear which part from the Meziere link I was copying. I agree, for a simple plate, just cutting it out (and maybe sanding the edges, and maybe running an 1/8” radius router bit around the edges…) would be just fine. |
DiDueColpi Fred Key West coast - Canada (1365 posts) Registered: 05/14/2010 03:06AM Main British Car: I really thought that I'd be an action figure by now! |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
Nope, Meziere has two holes as it was originally designed to fit the small block chevy.
If you are using the Pierburg pump it has one outlet and would be unnecessarily complicated to split the flow. If you're going the router route, (I would!) use a ball mill or pointed bit and jazz it up some. Mill some lines, sign it, draw naked people. Whatever floats your boat. Cheers Fred |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
That sounds like a simple remedy to not have to use the serpentine belt system. It also would clean up the front of the engine. Thanks to both for a solution. Now to get a pierburg pump and some aluminum
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Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
Hey Chad, You may want to make some actual measurements of your block/heads instead of relying on that CAD model. My experience having measured parts of it and compared to actual blocks, is that its a representation, and not massively accurate.
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Roverbeam Chad McNeely N.E. MO (75 posts) Registered: 06/09/2021 06:03PM Main British Car: Alpine S4 Rover 4.0 |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
Oh I get that! The ‘blue part’ is just the (representative) outline of the cad model’s water pump. It’s not what I would use to get a part made from Send-Cut-Send, nor would I print and stick it to a sheet of aluminum as a cutting guide. Thanks for looking out for me though!
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Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
Roverbeam, how did the project turn out? I too am planning to shoehorn a Rover 4.0 into an Alpine. (The engine is being built at the moment) I would love to hear more about issues encountered along the way.
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Roverbeam Chad McNeely N.E. MO (75 posts) Registered: 06/09/2021 06:03PM Main British Car: Alpine S4 Rover 4.0 |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
I’m probably not far -if any- ahead of you. I’ve got 95% of my engine parts shopping list complete, the block and crank are still at the machinist’s, and I haven’t started the chassis mods (unless you count lots of hours scheming with cad software).
I’ve made a deal with my better half to finish a house project before devoting shop hours to the car build. So other than things that affect purchases or future plans (tearing down, cleaning and measuring, etc), I’ve just been shopping and scheming. Since I give myself a limited monthly budget for things like this, the longer I wait, the nicer the parts can be… |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
After many years under a dust cover I've finally decided to get the thing running again. That said I've always intended to get rid of the engine driven pump and go electric, so this thread or any like it is of interest to me. Main annoyance will be that I'll need to come up with a solution for water to the offy manifold and the return from the heater. Any advice from anybody?
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DiDueColpi Fred Key West coast - Canada (1365 posts) Registered: 05/14/2010 03:06AM Main British Car: I really thought that I'd be an action figure by now! |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
The fitting on the rear of the Offy manifold is hot water out to the heater core. The other heater line is the water return to the engine.
T it into the inlet side of the water pump or into the rad if you have an unused fitting on it. The bypass port at the thermostat housing can be blocked as the electric pump has no need for it. |
Re: Electric water pump, Rover V8
Thanks for the response. Appreciated. Given the extreme lack of space in the engine space, on reflection I've decided to just replace the standard pump for now. Curious thing though, when I removed the pump it appears that over the years the coolant has separated.... I know perceived wisdom is that this doesn't happen, but I'm seeing blueish crystals in the galleries. Anyone have a view on this and advice on getting rid of it?
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