FlowKooler high flow water pump?

I personally don't believe the extra flow potential means anything significant. The OE Mopar water pump and radiator is capable of keeping our TJs cool in the hottest desert conditions, I can attest to that after wheeling two TJs in our local deserts for nearly 20 years. And keep in mind too that the temperature is set by the thermostat. :)
 
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I too agree that the factory water pump is all you need. Sometimes you see these guys on quests to get their coolant temps as low as possible, but have no logical reason as to why they are trying to accomplish that.

Remember, getting your coolant temps to low is not good for your engine. All engines are designed to have a specific range of operating temperatures. Going over (or under in this case) those ranges is not a good thing.

In other words, cooler isn't always better.
 
What about the quality of the FLOWKOOLER part? I am fed up with parts store cheap Chinese parts. They offer a lifetime warranty but I would rather pay more money and do the job once. I need to replace my 2004 LJ water pump and would like some advice on a quality part. Anyone with input? Thanks.
 
The FlowKooler quality is crap from what I hear. The impellers break off.

So it's similar to an Autozone warranty. Sure, they'll give you a lifetime warranty, you just might have to replace it a lot more often than you suspect!
 
brad said:
What about the quality of the FLOWKOOLER part? I am fed up with parts store cheap Chinese parts. They offer a lifetime warranty but I would rather pay more money and do the job once. I need to replace my 2004 LJ water pump and would like some advice on a quality part. Anyone with input? Thanks.
Click to expand...
As you have confirmed you realize, the water pump is definitely not something you want to replace with a cheap store brand. I'll only use and recommend a Mopar water pump, this would be the correct model for your 2004 4.0L engine.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009DKISHK/?tag=wranglerorg-20
 
Reviving an old thread but thanks for info. I'm pretty sure my water pump is leaking (small bit of coolant down the front of my engine) and saw them on Qtec's site and they sound great but guess they're junk too. Mopar it is.
 
I have had my Flowkooler on two different strokers over 14 years. No issues so far. I also have one on my Oldsmobile. Both look like they are very good quality.

And I don't think anybody is trying to lower their actual running temp. If they are and are doing so without tuning, they are wrong. My goal was more reserve cooling capacity. That being said, I noticed no difference on either vehicle.
 
I agree. I was just commenting on my goal of reserve capacity vs running cooler than stock. Hence my additional comment that I noticed no difference.
 
I installed a Flowkooler wp on my V-8 in my TJ to try and combat the overheating I was experiencing and it didn't help. Now that doesn't mean that these water pumps are JUNK because comparing the Flowkooler next to the stock wp you can see it is constructed better and the vanes on the FK are covered where the stock are open. Now does this make the FK flow more coolant? I have no idea.
I'm going to install a stock style wp on my new stroker engine and see how it works and only if I have overheating issues while crawling on the trail will I think about trying another FK wp.

IMGP0989.JPG



The pump sits in the front engine cover which has the timing chain behind it.

IMGP0990.JPG
 
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I have had highly negative experiences with FlowCooler water pumps. The nature of the design modifications appear to vary depending on the particular engine model. For the 360 I am not convinced the design delivers greater flow at all, and in fact may provide less flow. I wasted a lot of time, money, and effort just to return to a nice, heavy duty, and correctly sized stock water pump.
 
So what was the highly negative experience then? I mean, didn't do anything positive for you in your example, I get that. Was there anything else?
 
I found my post from several years ago to the IFSJ group. The responses are of interest, also.

http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=162007
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There have been a few posts in this forum over the years that have called into question the function of FlowKooler water pumps. The FlowKooler pump [for the 360] doubles the number of vanes by riveting a brass plate with a second set of identical vanes to the stock impeller. It appears to be of reasonably quality assembly. [though there are reports of failure] This is advertised to increase coolant flow at slower rpm's. While there are plenty of testimonials here on ifsja and all over the internet that report good results, there are occasional reports of mysterious and confounding coolant flow problems.

For posterity and what it's worth, here is my recent experience:

My '91 GW was operating normally when the stock water pump bearing failed and the wobbly fan destroyed radiator. I installed all the following: new radiator, new fan, new fan clutch, new upper and lower hoses, new temperature sending unit, new thermostat, new radiator cap, fresh coolant, new belts, FlowKooler water pump, and all related gaskets (FlowKooler's instructions require two or more for clearance).

The result: bizarre wild fluctuation of indicated engine temperature under load in various conditions.

The use of an infrared thermometer on the engine, along with the fact that the coolant never seemed to actually build any systemic pressure, told me that something didn't make sense. After diagnosing the system, confirming the coolant was free of air pockets, and confirming the correct operation of all other components (and consulting the FSJ Tech archives!), I decided to pull the FlowKooler pump. I drilled out the extra plate of vanes and reinstalled the pump along with all the same previously installed components.

The instant result was perfect cooling in a variety of loads and conditions.

One possible take on the FlowKooler pump: doubling the number of vanes might have some benefit under some circumstances, but occasionally also has the result of cavitating the pump under load in various conditions. After Googling some documents having to do with pump design, it seems that increasing the efficiency of a pump is not typically going to be achieved by just doubling the number of vanes on the impeller. The diameter of the impeller, the type of impeller, and the shape of the vanes are design parameters that potentially improve pump efficiency. In fact, there is literature specifically indicating an upper limit to the number of vanes that will function efficiently.

The mystery is why the FlowKooler pump sometimes does work and it sometimes doesn't work. Is there something about the potential difference in clearance to the pump housing that is one variable, since it's up to each installer to decide just how many extra gaskets to go with? Is the modified design simply more susceptible to failure due to variances in coolant flow in some engines? While I had some familiarity with pump operation through work, I am not an engineer and would love to hear from one who could make better sense of all this.
Just a few of the links that came up:
[not all links current]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/74375476/25/Impeller-Design

http://asmedl.org/getabs/servlet/Get...ifs=yes&ref=no

http://www.pumped101.com/index.html#...s_centrifugals
 
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THAT was what I was talking about. I agree on your guess about the cavitation too. The Nismo version of the water pump on my old Skyline actually had fewer vanes and was known to not cool as well for a daily driver, but performed much better on road course cars that ran 700+hp motors at sustained high rpms. Standard pumps supposedly cavitated at those rpms but flowed better at saner speeds. Then you got the guys who put the Nismo pumps in because race car. They could never figure out why they had cooling problems after installing their expensive bad ass upgraded pumps.

I think there impeller design for each application is going to be unique and if Flowkooler is just repeating the same "mo vanes = mo betta" recipe without doing the research to go with it in each application, it's best to steer clear unless their is a known benefit. I think the backing plate and relatively stock impeller design on at least my pump makes it fine to use, good quality, but of questionable benefit.

That's also the partial truth that Jerry and others love to preach. Upgrades aren't always upgrades. Modified parts are different but not necessarily better. Some have crap quality, some have identical function at a higher price, and some do things different from OEM which may or may not be better in a specific application. Unless you know what your are doing, just buying "upgraded" parts and slapping them on may be a bad idea. The flip side of that coin is sometimes it might be better and blanket dismissal of everything not Mopar branded is not always correct.
 
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