BMW went to an electric water pump. Main reason was the engine heats up more
quickly thus is more efficient and stays cool better when idling. Or so I
was told.

Pretty good reasons to go electric.

Mike

On 2/17/08 7:49 PM, "Scott Daniel - Shazam" <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
wrote:

> On a similar vein, I believe fuel mileage is one of the main reasons for
> electric power steering, as used on various GM products in the last few
> years.
>
> It's also about weight, compactness, and cost of manufacturing each part or
> system.
> There are 'load gains' to be made in anything that's a load on the
> engine...........like alternator or a PS pump.
> Jeep even went so far as to have a hydraulic motor, controlled by the main
> ECU to drive the radiator fan - so they could infinitely optimize the needed
> van rpm..........in interests of fuel economy and perhaps noise factor.
>
> A water pump however, is almost nothing to an engine. The impeller is 3
> inches max in diameter, and only about 3/4 of an inch thick, with perhaps 9
> small blades on it.
> They're even driven by the timing belt in most modern engines and buried
> almost, and add almost no significant load to the engine.  It's not even a
> positive displacement pump.......just little blades spinning in a small
> chamber of coolant.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Wesley Pegden
> Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 6:55 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Electric Water Pump (was: Re: Electric Vanagon? Now really useful
> tips..)
>
> Something I've wondered about which is a little bit related to this is
> running the water pump off a small electric motor rather than a belt.
>
> The advantage, in my mind, is that you could have a decent rate of flow
> even when the vanagon is at idle, to cut down on coolant system stress
> when your stuck in traffic in the summer heat.
>
> I'm not sure what the impact would be on gas mileage.
>
> -Wes
>
>
> Scott Daniel - Shazam wrote:
>> Go for it.
>> Document your fuel mileage really carefully first, then do the changes,
> then
>> check again and let us know what improvement you get.
>>
>> It is standard on many modern Honda's and I imagine many other modern cars
>> that the alternator only charges when it needs to, as controlled by the
>> engine's ECU>
>>
>> I'll bet this fuel saving tip isn't on that list :
>> In any car with an automatic trans, the instant it's where I want it I
> shut
>> off the engine, 'then' I put the shifter in Park.  Stopping, and first
>> putting it in Park, which makes it rev up.......then shutting it off just
>> wastes fuel.
>>
>> On a manual, if just sliding straight into a parking spot, I shut it off
> at
>> least 30 feet before I get there and coast in.
>> scott
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
>> Ken Lewis
>> Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 6:31 PM
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Subject: Was: Electric Vanagon? Now really useful tips..
>>
>> Here is a site with some gas saving tips:
>> http://forum.ecomodder.com/showthread.php?t=44
>>
>> Section 4; item #8 caught my eye. ;"Take off the alternator belt".
>>    Instead of something that drastic I was thinkng of adding a circuit
> loop
>> to disable/enable the alternator on my daily driver . Some sites claim 5
> to
>> 10% fuel savings.
>> Spit-balling:
>> The alternator would only be loaded during:
>> 1> braking
>> 2>battery voltage below 11(?) volts
>> 3>button on shifter activation for downshifting
>> 4>?
>>
>> Otherwise the ignition system would run on the spare battery . Solar
> panels
>> could charge it during the day between commutes. All parts I have laying
>> around the garage. Hmmmm....
>>
>> Ken Lewis
>> http://neksiwel.20m.com/
>>
>>