Electric water pump with serpentine belt

[retorq]

Welp I think I need a new water pump. This one has 250K+ on it as far as I can tell and since I'm dropping in a new radiator here soon I thought I mind as well do it at the same time. I'm thinking of going with an electric setup. For no other reason then the 'cool' factor. I'm looking at my belt routing and I think I can get away with just a shorter belt bypassing the water pump all together. Anyone here ever do it??

I know there are electric water pump/serpentine kits available but seriously take a look. It looks doable with a shorter belt and that's it ...

I'll probably do efans while in there. Man it never stops ...

 

[SunlitComet]

I would leave that pump mechanical. It needs to run all the time and electrical just adds more to fail for pump. if mech and it siezes you will hear belt squel if belt brakes then you get lights on other things to warn to shut down. You have some time at high speed driving to pull over if you notice your temp gauge rising if your fans go out since it is still circulating. If you were electric and the pump failed and did not notice your gauge the thermal rise may be to dangerous to prevent disaster. Unless you rig up some rpm monitoring for it.

 

[retorq]

I'm 100% on top of my gauges. I can tell there is a problem before it's a problem.

Either way the electric pump can go on the Camaro if I don't like it on the Tahoe or it's not reliable, it's not going to be a waste of money ... I'm most worried about belt slip at higher alternator load since the belt tension will be lower the way I'm looking at it. :|