Rover V8 Water Pump Pulley Size

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Homewood
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Rover V8 Water Pump Pulley Size

Post by Homewood »

Hi Has anyone experimented in fitting a smaller pulley to increase water flow ?
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clive
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Re: Rover V8 Water Pump Pulley Size

Post by clive »

Why would you want to increase the water flow? If you do, then would the water not flow faster through the radiator and therefore not cool as much? The rate of flow will also vary as to the engine speed.
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peterc
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Re: Rover V8 Water Pump Pulley Size

Post by peterc »

Definitely! If you have a 6” pulley then try a 5”.
Clive, You are assuming that the water is flowing fast enough to start with.
My engine initially came with a 6” water pump pulley and I found that the water temp would gradually rise when driving up a long incline on the motorway. Resolved by trying to remember to change down to 4th gear. I realised that the water pump was not turning fast enough to do a proper job as the engine wasn’t turning over very fast when in 5th. One of the down sides to an engine that is otherwise happy enough to pull from below 1500 revs and using a high final drive.
I now use a 5” pulley and the problem only manifests itself if I choose to boot it going up a steep hill which I tend to do. It’s fun leaving the car behind wondering why he is no longer directly behind me especially if you can achieve it without changing down.
Other Rover water temp fluctuations have been discussed elsewhere on the forum and emanates from the design of Edlebrock manifold and the position of temp sender relative to the thermostat.
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Homewood
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Re: Rover V8 Water Pump Pulley Size

Post by Homewood »

I took the car to the local garage to test for head/water leaks found nothing but suggested the water isn't flowing fast enough as on idle increased revs cooled it down. He also sucked the air out of the water system. I'm going back this morning for a test drive. If this hasn't worked the only option is to drill a hole through the thermostat wall as discussed previously.
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Migge
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Re: Rover V8 Water Pump Pulley Size

Post by Migge »

I can't remember the original diameter but I was going that route to make the waterpump pulley smaller to get more flow. It works perfect since 2016.

If I can rember, MGB waterpumps have a different size to regular SD1 pump pulleys.

Later Serpentine engine has the crank pulley a bit larger than the waterpump pulles anyway.
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Migge
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Re: Rover V8 Water Pump Pulley Size

Post by Migge »

Don't get confused by the numbers on the pulleys. That are the ID for the bolt circle :-)
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Keith56
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Re: Rover V8 Water Pump Pulley Size

Post by Keith56 »

If it pumped enough to cool a Range Rover it should be more than enough for us. I would check to see if the rad is partially blocked. This is quite common in both Cu/Brass and Aluminium especially if inadequate/wrong coolant has been used. I've wasted a lot of time in the past trying to cure a cooling problem with uprated pump etc only to find the problem was with rad blockage.
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