A while back when I was struggling to adapt a Meziere 55 gpm electric water pump for a 385 series Ford onto my high riser engine, the topic of adapting a CVR electric pump to an FE came up. Meziere doesn't make one of their big 55 gpm pumps for an FE, and I have called them twice asking about using one of their lower capacity pumps on a high horsepower engine, and both times they've told me that it is likely I'd have cooling problems on the street with anything less than their 55 gpm unit. Since they don't make a 55 gpm unit for an FE, they suggested one of their remote pumps, but that didn't really fit my high riser program, so I ended up using the 55 gpm 385 series pump instead, and adapting it to my high riser. But the CVR pump looks like a very interesting alternative to this approach, especially given the $500 price tag of the Meziere pump. It is also claimed to be a 55 gpm pump, and it uses kind of a modular design, where you buy the center section ($243 at Summit) and then buy the adapters required to bolt the center section onto your engine. Of course, they don't make these adapters for an FE
But the adapters didn't look all that difficult to machine. One of our forum members sent me one of these pumps for measurements, so that I could try to develop a CNC program to machine the adapters. Below are a couple of photos of the CVR pump center section:
The link below is for the adapters for this pump, used with a small block Ford engine:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CVS-8302CL/The 55 gpm CVR pump would resolve the flow capacity issue that some of us face with the standard FE Meziere pumps. But when I was thinking about this, another issue came up, and that involves the attachment of accessories on the engine. None of the electric water pumps I've seen address this; there just aren't any mounting holes or bosses available on the aftermarket electric pumps for the factory brackets. Here's a picture of the front of an Edelbrock water pump, showing the five mounting bosses and holes used for various purposes on FE engines:
It sure would be nice to have the water pump adapters have these mounting bosses, especially the ones on the engine's right side, so that the factory alternator brackets could be used. Last night and this morning I spent some time starting to draw the adapters up on my CAD program, and have figured out that I can probably machine the adapters to include these bosses. The bad news is that the machining program would be rather complex, and would also require each of the adapters to be set up in four different positions to complete all the machining operations. This would make the adapters relatively expensive compared to adapters that just mounted the pump, because those could be machined in just two setup positions.
Let's say just as a ballpark figure the standard adapters would cost $120 per pair, and the ones with the bosses would cost $200 per pair. What do you guys think, would it be worth it to include the mounting bosses and holes for the factory brackets, or not? All comments welcomed - Jay
