Heres my .02 cents worth
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There was a big debate on this around my area some time ago. I would love to run one it’s just that if it ever failed you would overheat the motor….not worth a few hp for me vs. the cost of my motor. There had been some failures of electric pumps is why this was brought up. Mechanical pumps start to leak but I have never heard of one failing and overheating the engine. If I was a drag racer I would have one for sure and use it to cool the motor down like was talked about. I have had electric fans fail and quit but never a mechanical fan…..not the same I know but if a fan fails as long as you are moving you won’t overheat. Loose a water pump and you don’t have much time before you could do serious damage and unless you caught it on your gauge or had a light it would probably be too late. I guess I’m not willing to take the risk for a few horsepower.
I would always run a thermostat on anything but a drag car that I wanted to cool between rounds. The wear on a motor below 180deg is huge. They have a chart in this engine blueprinting book I got and there is like 4 times the wear at 160 vs. 180 and below 160 it’s unreal. If I only ran ¼ or 1/8mi. at a time I wouldn’t care, but this is why you have a thermostat that is closed to heat the engine up as quickly as possible then open to maintain the temp. Once you hit 180 the difference between that and 200 is minimal.
Tom
