Water pump GPM?

Car will not see extended mileage except for the occasional long cruise. No PS, no AC, no towing, car will weigh about 3100lbs, torqueflite, stall speed won't be absurdly high, street gears. Moderate ignition timing, 230 degrees at .050, 10.5:1, big valves, block huggers. Once in a while it might get to the dragstrip, for fun, not serious racing. Live in southern NYS so won't see extreme summer temps much. Winter driving is not in the forecast, but on a nice December day who could resist?

Is the reason for having a temp controller turn the ewp on/off more than just temp control? Wouldn't a regular thermostat do that job anyway? Or is it not good to have the elec pump running constantly?...pressure build up in the system, or amp drain or something else?

I see the remote pumps mostly range from 20-55 GPM. And I read that pump ratings are not always based on the same standards. Some guys have used a 20gpm system on the street just fine, others have had problems with 30gpm.

I'm no engineer but it seems like 55GPM is an awful lot of coolant. That's a freeking oil barrel full! My sense tells me as long as there is sufficient volumeand flow in the system, the actual heat transfer would be handled by an efficient radiator. And I've read that while there is the notion that too much flow causes overheating because the coolant doesn't spend enough time in the radiator, I also read(from a EWP supplier) that is actually not the case, cavation and therefor reduced gpm at high rpm is the cause of that.

I'm trying to put some of these fuzzy and sometimes contradictory ideas in perspective so that I can build a reliable system. I think getting an idea of typical GPM for mechanical pumps in a big block is a start. Need something to compare to. I haven't found any info on gpm ratings for even hi-perf mech water pumps, just claims of 'higher flow'. Higher than what and by how much?



Thanks again