PRI 2016: Staying Cool with Meziere’s LS Extreme Duty Water Pump

Meziere-LS-Extreme-Water-Pump-PRI-2016-01

High compression, supercharger, turbocharger, nitrous – no problem, says Meziere Enterprises. The industry leader in electric water pumps has its sights set on the drag racing crowd with the new LS Extreme Duty Water Pump (PN WP333). The bulkier design that accommodates the factory serpentine belt routing is gone in favor of a more slender fit that saves a few pounds and conserves valuable space. At the same time, it pumps 55gpm through the block to cool the cylinders.

“Up until this point, our 55gpm offerings for the LS engine have only been the pulley style pumps,” said President Don Meziere. “When somebody wanted to build a stripped down race engine with very minimal accessories, they really didn’t need the extra idler pulley and all that. This is a real basic – get the water in and get the water out – fast moving pump. But it also has some provisions for accessory brackets … high pressure port, low pressure port for a heater or bypass. It could be used on a street vehicle as well.”

While we had Don cornered, we asked him a few basic questions about electric water pumps to give us some background knowledge. For example, is more flow always better? “With street vehicles, more flow is typically better. You won’t see an electric pump over-performing in a street vehicle. The only time we’ve seen it where an electric pump is pumping too much water is really when the radiator is undersized… But it is pretty rare. There is only a 200-watt motor driving the water, so it’s not even close to the horsepower a mechanical pump is consuming at higher RPM. Typically an electric pump will move 20 gallons per minute through the system by the time you add the resistance of the radiator, the head gaskets and all that. A mechanical pump at high RPM can move as much as 150gpm.”

“We have done some 70gpm pumps by doubling the electric motor, but you run into space issues and it loses its advantage by the time the package size increases and all the other heat issues that come along with it. This seems to be a pretty good package for street cars, drag cars, and we’ve even done circle track cars up to 700hp. And that’s pretty demanding. That’s a lot of on-throttle time.”

That brings up another interesting point about electric pumps: are they always a good idea? “Where we discourage the use of electric pumps is in street applications like a truck where you might tow with it. The wide-open throttle time could be really extended, like when you are trying to pull up a hill. In that case, what is important is block pressure. With a mechanical pump you can see an extra 20-30-40 psi of pressure in the block. What that does is raise the boiling temp… When it boils there is no cooling ability. It’s really important for boosted applications with 20-40psi, they need a lot of block pressure. Electric pumps are well suited for drag racing, mild street to semi-radical street applications, typical small-block circle track, even some time attack and road racing stuff. But there are some places where mechanical pumps are better suited.”

If any of these applications sounds like your build, check out the LS Extreme Water Pump or some of Meziere’s other offerings.

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About the author

Scott Parker

Scott dreamed of being in the automotive media in high school, growing up around car shows and just down the street from Atco Raceway. The technology, performance capability, and craftsmanship that goes into builds fuels his passion.
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