Fellow Moparians,

I have a 1989 Dodge Lancer Shelby, 2.2 Turbo II engine. My water pump housing has a crack in it so time to get a new WHOLE water pump, housing and all. Since, from time to time, in the summer, on full boost for more than a minute or so the water temp gets a bit high I was thinking, while I'm at it, why not put in a "high performance water pump". The turbo II is the same engine as in a lot of other cars of that era, I figure someone has had to have gone this route before. The electric pump sounds like an easy fix but I am not sure it sounds like a reliable solution, particularly since it will be hitting the battery pretty hard. I have looked at a few mechanical pump vendors but have been seeing mostly V8 solutions. Has anyone out there got some pointers?

HWBAD

 

I see no particular advantage to electric over belt driven water pumps. Unlike fans, which can shut down on the highway or when cool, a water pump pretty much needs to run. This means that the alternator and battery must supply that juice

The engine has to run the alternator, and you are losing SOME efficiency just in the conversion from mechanical to electric and back again.

Some of the drag racers run them because they can shut down the alternator during a run, so the electric pump is not a load on the engine at that time, and they can run the pump "in the pits" for added engine off cooling. But for a "street car" it makes no sense to me.

 

I would suspect the only pump available is the factory. The WP sends the water thru the engine at a set speed depending on RPM If you try an push it through faster it doesn't have time to cool the engine What you can do is add an engine oil cooler if it doesn't have one or maybe a bigger oil cooler. Next would be a bigger radiator
Do you have the stock pulleys ? IF aftermarket ? It may be running too slow..