Since I will have clearance issues putting the 401 in my Jeepster, I'm wondering if someone makes an electric drive water pump for the Nailhead? I'm planning on mounting my radiator in the rear bed of my Jeep to give me clearance up front and would like to replace the mechanical water pump with an electric one. Also, second question: What's the pros & cons of a remote oil filter system (twin filters)? Is there a height requirement when mounting one? I'd think the twin oil filters would be a plus or is it? I'm considering installing an oil cooler along with my trans cooler up front since I'll be moving the radiator to the rear of the vehicle. So I would have the A/C cooler, trans cooler & oil cooler mounted by the front grill with an electric fan for pulling air. Is there really a benefit to an oil cooler or is it just a waste of $$ Any help would be appreciated. Thanks,
I've never seen an electric pump advertised, but I think you can buy a universal electric pump that mounts away from the engine and make your own custom adapter to bypass the water pump. I have seen the homemade adapters before and they can be quite ugly.
A good remote pump is plenty reliable. However, you will need to deal with a front cover that has large openings for the coolant plus the fact that the water crossover goes out the top of the cover then to the heads.Weiand used to make front covers for the Nailheads for dragrace/fuel injection applications that had no waterpump provisions. There is/was one on Ebay this week and last I saw it was around $355.00 You still need to address the water outlets to the heads and block though. This could be done with some heavy steel plate cut to fit and some threaded fittings tapped into them. The remote oil filter systems are ok. I don't know if they are much better nor worse than the 'on engine' adapters. Some cars have a similar setup from the factory such as early to mid 90s S10 Blazers. The second filter works great in theory but not sure how much it actually helps compared to one filter, sure won't hurt though and adds nearly 1qt capacity which by itself will help cool the oil and take longer to dilute. If you mount the filters in a good air flow area, they will help cool also. Oil coolers are a good idea as oil is actually the first item to help cool your engine, before coolant/water does. Good luck,
Thanks Joe. Yes, the cross-over tubes will be the biggest problem in designing the cover for where the old water pump would be and making it function correctly and also look good too.
