TA high performance water pump - AC pulleys

Anyone running the TA hi perf water pump with the AC pulleys on your 455 ever have an issue with moving too much coolant too quickly? Reason I’m asking is I have the AC pulleys which spins the water pump faster than the crank given the difference in sizes of these pulleys. Seem to make sense for Buick to do this with a 455 in a full size Buick cruising along with highway gears at 2,000 rpm. Add 3:73 or 4:10 gears, water pump is spinning a lot faster then factory may have ever intended. Add the TA hi perf water pump, wondering if may be moving too much coolant? Any thoughts, thanks

 

I don't think that's an issue? As long as the system is full and the pump is moving coolant and not just cavitating, I think there is no such thing as "too much"?

Why do you think that?

 

Are you having some cooling issue? I like to always have an open mind, but it does not occur to me that in a system with a thermostat in it, that the coolant would be able to move too fast, regardless of pump.. you would just increase cooling system pressure.

Buicks already have a pretty restrictive block.. my dyno guy reports to me that his coolant system pressure gauge, used to determine how difficult it is to move water thru the engine, reads higher (6psi) than just about any other engine.. when he first started tracking this data a few years ago, he used to ask me every time right after we filled it and turned on the water pump, if the block was filled with grout in the water passages.. That was the only time he saw above 3psi in the more common engines he tests.

My own experience bares this out.. I never run a thermostat in a hot rod-seasonal use muscle car.. there simply is no need.. and it's a common failure point. Often we have had to put coolant flow restrictors to slow the water down. .but never in a 400/430/455... with any pump or pulley combo. But never done that with deep rear end gears, driving the thing on the highway.. as that's a pretty rare usage...

JW

 

I have a TA pump, 160 high flow Robertshaw stat,Cold Case Alum rad and clutch fan, 777/778 AC pulleys. when I switched to a 779 non air pulley, the temps went up considerably highway driving at 3000-3500 rpm. The water needs to move, and as quick as possible

 

Im not having cooling issues currently in this stock 455, 180 robert shaw t stat, a stock style 5 blade impeller water pump, shroud, 7 blade clutch fan and 4 core standard rad. Using the AC pulleys , which as you know, the crank is spinning the water pump faster then a non AC combo.
Moving forward, the 470 will have the TA high perf water pump with these AC pulleys. Since im using an ATI balancer, i have many big block chevy crank pulley options.
If I end up with a combo of pulleys that is similar ratio to a non AC Buick set up, anyone see any issues with that combo versus the over driven water pump pulley set up I currently run?
One benefit of running the non AC pulley ratio is slightly less hp to run?
Assume the TA pump works well with the non AC pulleys?

I have the opportunity to slow the pump down to a non AC ratio or overdrive it like the stock AC pulleys. Which would you choose given rear gears will likely be 3:73 or 4:10

Thanks

 

Hello Larry, been a while. You and so.e of the V8b guys helped with a 455 build a dozen years or so ago. You guys were a huge help. I have one question for you. Who is making a billet or chrome pulley set WITH [AC DELETE ] For a 71 455 Riviera. Thanks in advance. Dave

 

I have been going through the steps to get the cooling system in my 67 dialed in. Started with a recored 4 row rad, then a shroud and clutch fan. Recently I have added a TA high flow pump and turned the washer bottle into a coolant overflow.

My highway temps are perfect. Right around 180-185. Before the TA pump, temps would climb after just a few minutes of idling. If I let it idle for 10 minutes I'd have to shut the car off to keep from overheating.

Now temps stay fairly solid initially but still creep up over time. 15 minutes of idling and I'll go from 180 to 200. I still have non-ac short body pump pulleys.

I found an A/C water pump pulley but no luck on the crank pulley yet. I'm going to try just switching the wp pulley (if belt lines up) to see if it makes a difference.

The A/C water pump pulley is almost an inch smaller than non A/C so it should go from underdriven to just slightly overdriven in that configuration.

 

The temp creeping up like that indicates you still have a problem. Either insufficient radiator, or as Larry hints at/explores, too much heat.

 

Last I checked I am pretty close to 20* at idle with vacuum advance hooked up or 10-12* initial without vacuum advance, I'd say there is a chance the balancer could have slipped but the engine seems to make the right power based on track times.

When I go to the track I usually add a degree or two of timing (to bring total to 33-34 degrees) and pull off the vacuum advance just to reduce any risk of pinging while footbraking the car at the starting line.

The coolant temp has not gone above 200 since switching to the TA pump but I'd still like to see if the smaller WP pulley helps keep temps closer to 180. I am fairly confident I have a 180 thermostat in the car but I may change it on the off chance it is actually a 195.

The reproduction GS400 fan shroud is a poor fit and there is a quarter inch or so gap at the top edge of the radiator. I may try temporarily taping thst corner to see if it helps.

As far as the radiator, I think I have gone as far as I can without switching to aluminum. It is a brand new 4 row core with the original tanks on the sides. It totally cured my highway cooling issues.

 

I remember messing with it when I first bought the car in 2017 but I noticed some part throttle pinging when I bought the car back last year. Decided to limit the vacuum advance even further to 8* and it seems to have helped. I have a mightyvac brake bleeder gun. Not so great for bleeding brakes but it works awesome for applying vacuum to things. I have used that to check my vacuum advance to make sure it moves freely and returns to zero as vacuum is released.

I want to check to make sure my mechanical advance limit bushing is still in place too as the distributor I have has a ton of mechanical advance in it. I did that to try and help bump up initial timing without running into issues.

 

Overheating at idle is usually not enough airflow. AC pulleys may help