Good photo of Skip's impeller?

[Mike B]

Wow, like watching a soap opera..mercy.

Bottom line in my opinion, is more flow will always assist in cooling...seems pretty simple to me.

Heck, many guys/gals run restrictors and not thermostats to keep the temp where they want it.

I'd rather have more flow than is needed, than less.

Henry, just curious, did the pics you see make you an informed engeering descision?

Data like GM provided would have suffice for me.

On topic...lol..off?

Oh, just another opinion of mine, it appears that the impeller is casted...is just the end of the impeller machined? (from pics posted it appears to me)

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by Mike B

Henry, just curious, did the pics you see make you an informed engeering descision?

I know your question may be a rhetorical one (that doesn't really want an answer). If so, I apologize for giving one. But, just in case you really want an answer, the answer is yes, although the pictures were not as powerful as Skip's instruction not to use his pumps with modern thermostats available for 32-48 engines. Now, at the risk of giving more information than anyone really wants to know, here's what I learned from the pictures.

HOW TO MOVE GASES AND FLUIDS: Using air as an example, there is a whole spectrum of devices to move it from a blade fan on one end of the spectrum to a piston compressor on the other end. The choice of which one to use depends on whether volume is more important or pressure. The fan, of course, moves way more volume but creates very little pressure through a restriction whereas, on the other hand, a piston compressor moves very little volume but can push air through very high restrictions. Water is the same way. The propeller of a boat moves the water at very high speed but would not create the pressure to fly a man in the air on a flyboard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd6C1vIyQ3w) like the centrifugal pump of PWC. So, there is a balance that must be struck between volume and pressure. So it is in the flathead engines. There is need for both and more of each under changing conditions within the engine. Essentially the difference is whether or not the water pump must push the water through the restriction of a thermostat. If it does not, the higher volume but lower pressure mixed-flow design of Skip's impeller is best. But, with the restriction of the thermostat, the pressure created by the centrifugal impeller may well be better, at least that's what Skip and other responses here have said.

Originally Posted by Mike B

Data like GM provided would have suffice for me.

Let me begin this response (which maybe no one wants) by congratulating G.M. for the creative and inventive work he did almost 20 years ago creating and testing the impeller that Skip now sells. It definitely has it's advantages as I mention above. However, as far as I have read (and I just re-read back almost three years) all of his testing was either with the pumps not installed in an engine or installed in an engine without thermostats. That is all good data for anyone that never needs or runs thermostats, which most seem to be. But for me, that lives where I need heat in the winter and a thermostat to create it, it is not really helpful because it does not report the performance of Skip's impeller when more pressure is needed. As I've just re-read the last three years of G.M.'s reports, many have asked for data from tests with a thermostat installed but there never has been any that I found. Apparently, Skip has some idea what the results of such a test would be and that's why he doesn't recommend his pumps be used with stock thermostats (high volume stats are OK). So, that's why G.M.'s data was not sufficient for my needs and purposes although it is very valuable for all of you in the sunbelts that don't need the stats. I also just sent G.M. a PM requesting details and data on his testing of the impeller that I'm using. He did not produce any. So, his tests comparing his impeller and stock impellers years before the impeller I use was developed is not really relevant to it.