gslender wrote:If you want to think that installing an electric water pump will return heaps of HP then start a new post and we can discuss the "science" there... not sure that demonstrating how fast it can empty a bucket is a measure of the watts used, nor do I believe that all OEM's for countless years actively agreed to over engineer something to the tune of 1,000x what is needed, but hey, will make for an entertaining discussion.
G
Grant, I think you're probably confusing yourself believing that a mech water pump is always robbing you of 10kw or whatever - which is not the case. As Dann said, the power draw squares with engine speed, so the faster it turns the more power it is taking. So at higher RPM its taking more kW from the system than at idle.
An electric pump wouldn't do this - it can be controlled to spin completely independently of the engine speed, and so the power draw is totally different. Its basically not comparable. You'd be better off comparing the power draw of a mechanical pump at engine idle, vs the electrical one.
Assuming that OEM's have 'overengineered' something 1000% is also flawed. Again - you might be sitting at idle on a hot day in traffic. A mech water pump has to be designed to handle that first and foremost. It spins at a certain RPM at idle to cool the system and has to be spec'd accordingly. It just so happens then, that at redline, it spins a whole lot faster and sucks a whole lot more power up there at the higher rev range. That's the way it has to be, since you can't ramp down a mechanical water pump at higher engine RPM.
Thinking about that - if you were worried about cavitation and whatnot - you'd be more likely to produce it with a mech pump at redline.