New water pumps on the market

Hi all
AH Spares are marketing new (Non-County) water-pumps which might be of interest. Having replaced a new County afetr only 18 months (with another County) I wish these had been around then. shame they are not painted Healey Green.

What do you all think?

https://www.ahspares.co.uk/blog/new...lkbspqf9lv4agi4cngonk9swgnjnnotroc9fkqavd_bwe

Phil

i would like to see one with a slightly smaller pulley.
my car sitting at a stop light will shoot up in temp. yet if i speed up the engine to even 1200 RPM, the temp goes right back down and stays there. i feel that if i could turn the water pump faster at idle it would solve the issue.

i have a county pump on mine. So far so good. but from everything i have read on here, i would try this one before going back to another county one.

Hmmmmmmm ... looks like the 6-cyl pump has sealed bearings, but has a zerk fitted. Wonder if that's just to seal a hole?

I have a County on my BJ8 for 7 years but carry my original in the boot. I rebuilt it with a kit from Mike Salter. I'm just waiting for the County to fail so I can test out my rebuild.

tahoe healey said:

I have a County on my BJ8 for 7 years but carry my original in the boot. I rebuilt it with a kit from Mike Salter. I'm just waiting for the County to fail so I can test out my rebuild.

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That statement will keep your County pump running fine for years.

Hi Drone Dog,

Yes, a smaller pully will speed up the pump and fan and increase coolant flow at idle. However, keep in mind that it will also raise the rotational speed of these components when driving at highway speed as well. As has been discussed on another thread, rotational speed stress fan blades and, by increasing it, has a higher probability of causing a blade fracture and fan failure.

Just my thoughts,
Ray(64BJ8P1)

Ray
Good point. thought about that as well. but was thinking if it only increased the speed the equivalent of a few hundred RPM, would it not increase the top end the same? Not racing my car so figured i would be safe.

Oh well just a thought.

Re: Smaller pulley - how do we know faster coolant flow will remove more heat?

Maybe just the increase in fan speed at idle would be the only benefit. After a certain point increased flow speed seems undesirable eg removing the thermostat.

Wonder what that certain point is though?

Danny

What we need is a variable-pitch fan. I'll get right on it.

Having all this extra time is great. We discuss and engineer solutions to issues Donald and Geoff probably never gave much thought to when then we're trying to just develop a cheap disposable car that was intended to last 10 years. We sure fooled them.

i was only going by my experience. i know that when i stop at a light, the temp gauge goes up. car is idling around 800 RPM. if i put my foot on the gas and speed the engine up to say 1100 RPM, the temp gauge goes back down. may take 10-15 seconds, but then it drops quickly 10-15 degrees. stays there as long as i keep the RPM up. it could be the fan, could be the increased coolant flow. guess putting on a smaller pulley would increase both.

What about a fan with a thermal switch on it to engage when the temperature reaches a certain point? A 12 cylinder V12 XJS Jag I use to own had one.

Consider adding a pusher electric fan in front of the radiator, with an automatic temperature based on/off setup, plus a manual over-ride switch. But read Raymond Carbone's article https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx4EjcJmfaScY0NLdlB0YjEwRFE/edit first.
And does anyone have sources/part numbers for the sleeve type thermostat (it appears that AH Spares doesn't carry this) as well as the radiator cap that Mr. Carbone recommends for adding an overflow tank? Thanks, Doug

Hi All,

The issue was not that Donald and Geoff hadn't thought about these cooling system changes but that making these design changes would have cause disruption to the company's present commercial production with little offsetting promotional value. In short, it was just not though of or experienced as a major issue back then as traffic and high speed freeways were still in the future.

Keep in mind that they had experienced cooling system air flow issues when racing and implemented this modification on their entries.

As you can see, air is ducted directly from the grill to the radiator with all other disrupting air intrusions eliminated (including air recirculation). Also, side fender vents and louvered bonnets allowed easy escape of radiator warmed air to achieve efficient and directed air flow through the engine compartment.

Yes, Geoff did respond to complaints by his racing teams cooling issues with these changes but, obviously, never saw these changes necessary to carry them forward to warrant their inclusion (inflow ducting or side-vent/louvered escape) in the general production of the 100-4 (louvered bonnet on M models) or the design of the its successor (6-cylinder) Big Healey.

Just my thoughts,
Ray(64BJ8P1)

twas_brillig said:

...
And does anyone have sources/part numbers for the sleeve type thermostat (it appears that AH Spares doesn't carry this) as well as the radiator cap that Mr. Carbone recommends for adding an overflow tank? Thanks, Doug

Click to expand...

Moss has them (160deg)--$99.99 yikes; that's, like, $500 Canadian layful:. There are a couple types of 'sleeved' thermos around. The original was a 'barrel' shaped type that doesn't look like contemporary ones. The other was a Robertshaw, which looks like other thermos you've seen, but had a part that moved vertically that some fashioned a 'collar' to that would at least partially cover the bypass port. The problem with the original type, I've been told, is that they're the 'fail closed' type; the potential problem is obvious (I bought one from Kees in The Netherlands but never installed it; I just have a feeling that an ancient thermostat might be prone to failing). I bought one of the original modified Robertshaw, from BCS IIRC, that was 160deg but I moved the sleeve to a 180 Robertshaw (it was soldered on). It works well but, again, I think it maybe covers 1/2 of the bypass port. I heard about repops in the original 'barrel' style that were supposed to be 'fail open'--I think Moss was promoting them for a while (dunno if these are them).

https://mossmotors.com/catalogsearch/result/?cat=7805&q=thermostat

Previous thread on sleeved thermos:
https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf/showthread.php?101510-Robertshaw-sleeved-thermostat&highlight=robertshaw+thermostat

You can adapt the stock radiator cap to pull back from an overflow tank by adding a thin rubber gasket which seals on the periphery of the filler neck:



Some Moss MG caps of a similar design but higher pressure come with such a gasket. I made this one.

steveg said:

Previous thread on sleeved thermos:
https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf/showthread.php?101510-Robertshaw-sleeved-thermostat&highlight=robertshaw+thermostat

You can adapt the stock radiator cap to pull back from an overflow tank by adding a thin rubber gasket which seals on the periphery of the filler neck:

View attachment 63157View attachment 63158

Some Moss MG caps of a similar design but higher pressure come with such a gasket. I made this one.

Click to expand...

As long as the centre button moves freely to allow the coolant to be sucked back in from recovery tank. I've done that for decades with Flathead Fords, 4lb and 7lb caps, un-dimple the seal plate from the spring, put a later one on, and a gasket in the top.
As far as speed of coolant flow and temperature heat transfer...that has been an argument or so many decades.

On Flatheads, the two pumps just moved the coolant too fast to allow heat to transfer, according to some pundits. I experienced it. Had to use the two thermostats to slow the coolant down, THEN on a pump rebuild grind every other impeller blade off, and for racing, drill a bunch of holes in the impeller. Have a set like that on my 3/4 race Merc.

So how does that transfer to Healeys? Is the bumping of RPM and the corresponding drop in temperature shown on the gauge a function of coolant speed or fan speed?

Most manufacturers have determined a thermostatically controlled fan does the job at idle, so my thoughts, based upon all off the above, is more about fan speed and less about coolant speed, unless you get into a situation where you have enough coolant speed with twin pumps to affect transfer.

There has to be a graph showing the correlation of these......

TOC said:

As long as the centre button moves freely to allow the coolant to be sucked back in from recovery tank. .....

Click to expand...

So, TOC, have you tried this with one of the Brit car caps?

It would be helpful if the metal disc on the unmodified 7 lb cap sealed well enough so the vacuum from the engine cooling would suck the coolant back into the radiator from the overflow tank and not just suck outside air.

One thing I know for sure is, with the thin rubber gasket, the radiator stays clear full and sucks the expelled coolant back from the overflow tank. It's been working well that way for 10 years.

steveg said:

So, TOC, have you tried this with one of the Brit car caps?

It would be helpful if the metal disc on the unmodified 7 lb cap sealed well enough so the vacuum from the engine cooling would suck the coolant back into the radiator from the overflow tank and not just suck outside air.

One thing I know for sure is, with the thin rubber gasket, the radiator stays clear full and sucks the expelled coolant back from the overflow tank. It's been working well that way for 10 years.

Click to expand...

I did that too for years, but now I have no room for the overflow tank.