Flowkooler pump 440

Anyone use a flowkooler pump on 440? Can you post your experience at idle, and long highway drives? Did it drop temperatures as advertised?

https://www.flowkoolerwaterpumps.com

Had an overheating 440 and did exactly that. It helped a little but in my case at least didn't solve the underlying problem (TQ). Fixed that and now the car runs nice and cool even while idling in traffic with a/c running at full blast.
Obviously I didn't swap the stock unit back in just to check how much of a difference the FlowKooler makes. It's well made though and the curved blades look like they're an improvement over the Mopar pump design.

OK Rory, I give up. What's TQ?

more info on what is going on. overheating at speed or around town? have you verified the temp? what temp(s)? what schroud/fan/mixture/timing in ballpark? any changes/adjustments immediately preceding the problem onset? less likely: lower hose partly sucking shut/stat not opening all the way. a parts house 8 blader with the anticav plate added behind the vanes works real well (just cut a sheet of sheet metal in half & have your welder tack it behind the vanes). TQ (thermoquad)! EDIT maybe too lean

Yeah: Thermoquad, didn't feel like boring you with all the details (slightly cracked carb base resulting in lean running engine).
Eliminate or verify all of the other possible causes before changing the water pump.

I put one on my 440 back in 1991- a fresh built motor. It always ran 215 degrees: never overheated, but never ran at thermostatic temp either (180 degrees). A few years laster I swapped it out for a stock 7 blade replacement (cannot recall what prompted me to do so) - no other changes to the cooling system- and from that day forward the car ran at thermostatic temp.

.02

I did try it and found my car ran hot at highway speeds. Too much pressure and it never resolved my low speed issues. I just put factory pump on and changed radiator and drove last night and seemed to work great. I wanted to unstand the success rate with this product. I called the company and still waiting for good discussion why it didn't work in my application. Going for another ride today to see if it works out as planned and will provide aan update. Changes made were:
Milodon high flow stat
Autozone 8 blade water pump
Passenger side water pump housing outlet
Dual pass griffin 26 x 17
Shrouded clutch fan
EFI fully controlled timing and AFR
Solid stainless lower hose
To be honest this was the exact setup with minus the pump that that I comparing to Flowkooler. To be clear I changed the radiator and Tryed both pumps. I will chime in again if this didn't resolve issue. By the way I just finished a 1000 mile road trip with the flowkooler in this application and it ran 215 on the highway with the occasional manipulation of throttle to cool down. Let off and let some air cool the engine and reduce the RPM.

One more... my theory is the pump generates so much pressure that it was fighting control with the thermostat. After an hour at 3500 rpm the temperature would creep up and keep on going hence me letting off the throttle and watching it cool slowly.

If I read this right, the radiator was changed also. Just me I think that is what made the difference on the highway temp. too much water pressure/flow would not be a problem tho there could be cavitation at the vanes.

Another theory to toss around; '68-earlier BB water pump housings are different for A/C and non-A/C installations. I believe the cavity behind the water pump is the difference and might be at the core of some temperature-related problems. IOW, pump vane/housing incompatibility.

Since the casting numbers of both appear to be the same, I don't know how to compare the two.

Yes, I believe the radiator was the cause of my issues. Although I tryed both combinations of pumps on both radiators and the results were the flowkooler at highway speeds didn't perform as well in both applications.

John you're the man (as always). I have a 451 in the works after being on SB's for decades & I have several BB pump housings & I will for sure note to check vane to housing clearance (want .040") when I get to that point.

but the "flowkooler" did was it was designed to do, get money from your wallet into theirs,

I have chased cooling system issues with various cars over the last 40 years and "rarely found" any after-market band aids to do anything more than drain my wallet. in 90 + % of the cases it wound up being the radiator itself.

Speaking of vane to housing...

looks like there might be a ton of space in between there!

Yeah, that was a supposed High flow pump.

I dug out the old flowcooler I ran in the late 90's. Fairly big gap and was warped, but my cooling system at the time needed more work too.

It may be (& likely is) a high flow pump with the best shaped & the most vanes but clearances have to be at ~.040" max to reduce what the engineers call parasitic recirculation. not sure if the clearance issue is on the pump or the housing or both or whether milling the housing face or moving the vanes rearward on the shaft (or both) is the answer. I know I got some work ahead of me on my 440 source alum blem pump. I'm gonna have go in the side & hog it out. I'm OK with that & that's why I bought it. EDIT pump housing I meant to say

What I ended up doing on my last engine (475" Hemi), I took that High Flow and had a friend weld extra lengths to the vanes, then blued, fit, grind, repeat, without a gasket till the vanes just touched, then assembled with I think a .015" gasket. And yes I pondered heat expansion.

Haven't gone back in to see how things are going. 4500 miles later and temp gauge says we're still good to go.

Thought about a puller to move the vanes the roughly .200" needed, but went this route kinda just to see if it could be done.

I had some more aggressive vane ideas but went with the simple first and see how well it works and lasts. An experiment I guess.

The 1st flowkooler I bought about 4 years ago did not have that huge gap, and it had way more vanes. With the gasket it was like 1/8" or less. This was in a mancini housing, 440.

I remember when I bought it I had to call them first because they had 2 part numbers on their website for BBM pumps, and I was confused on which one to order. Turns out they were changing part numbers. So, I think at the time I called they were phasing out the old design (probably from complaints related to the issues with the above posts) and that is why they had 2 part numbers. Now all the old are gone, and its just the new design that sits lower in the housing, with more vanes, possibly a different vane shape as well.

Hemikid, that's trick!

The lower rad hose got a stainless spring in short order.

By increasing the diameter of the impeller you have increased the pressure that the pump can provide at any rpm. If the increased pressure causes the coolant to flow through flow restrictions, then flow will increase also. Both these additions increase the amount of power the pump eats.

R.

I've seen close to 10° temp drops using one of the pumps like a Flow Kooler w/ the plate on the impeller compared to a stock style pump. I've also used the Milodon version w/ success.

Keep in mind that these style of pumps require the use of a balance flow style thermostat like a Robert Shaw. They claim the added pressure from the pump will close a standard style thermostat.

UPDATE the car runs much cooler with the factory pump. I put about 100 miles since changing it and it definitely is more predictable from a cooling perspective. I did have to reduce the vacuum advance and overall timing to reduce ping. I conclude in my application that there is some trade offs but in the end I would rather not worry about it creeping into the 200 plus range. I would think I could get this to work by changing the thermostat, but I feel That electric fans are a better investment. The setup today fluctuates between 175-190 and feel I can level it out around 195 with airflow. I'm waiting for a hot day to do more experimenting.

FYI the application has a balance flow Milodon thermostat maybe it needs the Robert Shaw. This could be the root of the issue.

you can toss the stat for a day as the slow(er) warmup wont hurt you at all for (1) day & it will tell you if the stat is involved in the issue.