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Electric Water Pump Install Photos

26248 Views 36 Replies 17 Participants Last post by  mixxbreed
I installed a CSR electric water pump today so I figured I'd take some photos and upload them here.
This may have been done already but I couldn't find any posts.
Some notes:
CSR instructions say to remove stock water pump parts by driving all out from the front, but after removing the shaft, bearing and impeller, the seal that remains must be driven out from the back (or pulled from front?).
I'm going to remove the shaft behind the timing cover in a couple days so I'll upload more photos at that time.
The shaft in the timing cover is leaking and this is in a dragster so I definitely want to remove it.
Let me know if it looks like I did anything wrong.
Thanks!

Cover removed:


Shaft and impeller removed:


Seal removed:


Paper used to locate and mark pump for grinding:


Pump housing marked for grinding:


Pump housing modified by grinding and freeze plug installed:


Freeze plug viewed from back of pump:


CSR pump installed:


Front of engine before timing cover removal:
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I hooked my wiring up to the fusbox near the aux post under the hood. IIRC Painless sells a kit for the pump that comes with a relay.

Silly question but with the heater core delete as this set up. How do you fill the cooling system?
I have a radiator cap on my dragster.
Here's a photo:


When I had a Turbo Buick engine in my Impala, I installed a radiator out of a 93 Caprice, which is pretty much identical to the Impala SS radiator, except it has a cap.
Here's a photo:
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This photo shows the gear and shaft after removal of the timing cover and shows the two bolts that have to be removed next (one has already been removed).


I didn't remove the timing cover completely because I had a tough time installing the vibration damper and I'm afraid it might not come off or go back on easily.
I unbolted the camshaft sprocket from the camshaft and pulled it back about half an inch, which was far enough to remove the water pump gear and shaft.

I used pliers to hold onto the shaft, leaned it against the intake manifold, and tapped the top of the pliers lightly with a hammer to remove the shaft.


Front of the engine after removal of the shaft.


Shaft with the bearing that was pressed into the front of the block.


Then I pulled the seal from the front of the timing cover with channel locks.


Then I decided to cover the timing cover hole with a new seal, washers on both sides, a nut, bolt, lock washer and Permatex gasket maker between the washers to prevent leaks. I could have done this with the old seal in place but didn't think about it before removing it. It seems that most people epoxy a quarter in place of the hole but I don't have any epoxy handy. If I had removed the timing cover I would have welded a plate in place.


Timing cover and front cover plug (used to delete opti-spark) installed.


Modified water pump installed.


And the parts that were removed as a result of installing the electric water pump.
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Well, until I read this write up I would have said NO!

I have installed three different makes (Mezier, Summit and Jegs) of electric H2O pumps on an LT1, and none required any grinding on the housing as noted above.

I'd like to know (so that I don't buy one as a spare) if the CSR pump requires those notches, or if that was something the OP did for some reason other than fitment.
The CSR pump requires this grinding.
Is that an old sling shot dragster?
It's an altered dragster originally built by Spitzer in 1987.
It has a 1923 Model T fiberglass body.
Chromoly chassis, 4-link rear suspension, rack and pinion steering, 4 wheel disc brakes, weighs 1420 pounds without driver.
Has NHRA chassis certification to run as fast a 6.00 in quarter mile.
Previous owner ran 7.9 @ 185.
I'm starting off slower, probably high 9's, until I get a hang of it and modify the engine further or install a different engine.
Here's a picture of the whole car.

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Today I wired the pump and tested for 1 second and heard metal scraping!
I removed the pump and noticed very minor damage to the impeller blades and corresponding location in pump housing (see below photo of impeller blades).
I measured the clearance between the impeller and the CSR motor housing with feeler gauges and it varies from 0.033" to 0.049".
The scraping in the water pump housing corresponds to the higher locations of the CSR impeller/housing clearance.
I'll do some minor grinding with a dremel tool to add clearance in the housing and to deburr the impeller blades and I'll try running it again.

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And check for balance?

CSR EWP seems like too much trouble!
I ended up just using a small hand file to deburr the impeller blades.
I only removed a hair off the corner of each blade, so I'm not worried about it being out of balance.
Well I made a run last week, 6.275 @ 109 in the 1/8 mile and everything worked great, no leaks or other issues.
It was a cool day (65 F) and the highest temperature I saw on the water temp gauge was about 170 F.
CSR requires grinding positional slots in the housing, not the actual pump.
RatSSled was commenting on the fact that I had to do some deburring on the impeller of the pump - see post # 22.
Ran quarter mile test and tune at Zmax Dragway in Concord, NC yesterday - 9.888 @ 136 mph - just floored it off idle, didn't use transbrake yet - 70 degrees outside, water temperature never went above 165.
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