Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Happy holidays to all! It has been cooler in Manila than usual, so it has
been quite pleasant the last few days.

Now a question on something I know absolutely nothing about. Would the new
electric pumps that are now on the market be a viable option on our twincam
engines? If so, does one disable the original pump or simply leave it in
place, perhaps not connected to the belt? The new pumps are now quite small
and do seem to offer convenience of maintenance and replacement.

Warm regards,

Andres

Andres,

Back in the late 1970's I knew a Europa Twin Cam owner who converted his car
to an electric water pump. The car never ran hot again. The nice thing
is that while sitting in traffic the electric pump continues to operate at
it's peak efficiency speed even though the engine is running at idle.

I don't recall off hand what he did about his old pump, but I believe he
just took the belt off. Something needs to plug the hole, and it may as
well be the old shaft as long as the seal isn't leaking. If the old pump
had failed, then you would have to do something about fixing any leak. In
that case it would be best to simply make a solid plug and LocTite it in
place.

Regards,
Tim Engel

Andres,
This was discussed about 12-18 months ago, if you can master the
archives you should find some useful info there from folks who had done
it. I seem to remember the pump in question was Australian but I can't
recall what was done about the existing pump.

Cheers,
Pete