First of all a Happy New Year to all of you! Then concerning my topic: I have 3 different high volume water pumps (ea 69 11-bolt style) to choose from for my (already with a stock 69 water pump equipped) 68 Firebird:
All three of them are aluminium high volume, using exactly the same casing made in Japan (although the one in the middle from FlowKooler has the "made in Japan" grinded out - but they forgot to grind out the part´s number on the inner side...)
On the far left side you see a Milodon High Volume WP bought from Classic Industries (part# 16281, I paid USD 99.95, now 89.99). Here are closer pics of the rotor (I was told that´s the really important part of the WP):
In the middle it´s the FlowKooler Performance WP bought at AmesPerformance (AP part#FN258AL, FK´s own part#1649, USD 129.00!):
Finally on the RH side it´s a high volume WP bought from R.A.R.E. (part# AWP-1, USD 89.00):
So -- big question for the experts: which one´s the best??
Funny thing btw - when you look closer (could be you first have to copy and paste the pics in an extra folder to see them larger) you´ll notice that the Milodon and the FlowKooler water pumps are exactly the same (!!) except an additional welded-on inner closing plate on the FlowKooler pump. Not sure if this justifies the 40$-difference...?
I´ll use one of them together with an stainless water-pump backing plate I bought from R.A.R.E., too (part# SSWP-1, USD 35.00).
For the moment I run - as told above - a regular 11-bolt WP on my (professionally restored and slightly upgraded) 68 400 YS (GTO) block. I run a RodneyRed aluminium cooler and temperatur is borderline so I´d like to upgrade to a high volume WP together with the according thermostat.
Concerning the thermostat AmesPerformance recommends a heavy duty thermostat opening at 180 degrees (part# FN255W, USD 10.00) but ClassicIndustries recommends the MrGasket High Performance thermostat, opening at 160 degrees (part#16400, USD 14.95).
