Water pump

GoldenMotor.com

Prasinos

Member
Dec 1, 2008
261
0
16
California
Does anyone know what the flow rate of the water pumps used on mopeds is?

I was wondering if one of those battery powered pumps they sell at wall mart to keep bait alive could move enough fluid to keep one of our engines cool.


I don't need an exact number but any info on the flow of any water cooled system would help.
 

Cabinfever1977

New Member
Mar 23, 2009
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Upstate,NY
You would need a water pump,lots of small copper lines and a radiator plus fan.
Some scooters and go-cart engines come with a fan mounted to the head.
 

2door

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 15, 2008
16,302
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Littleton, Colorado
As Cabin Fever has pointed out; circulating the water is only half the problem. You have to consider what with and where you're going to circulate it. Water cooled engines have an integral water jacket that allows coolant to circulate around the cylinders. You would need to wrap the air cooled portion of the engine with copper or aluminum tubing to get any cooling effect from the coolant. My advice? Just run the air cooled motor as it was designed to run. There would be little to no benefit from liquid cooling one of these little engines.
 

mountain80

Member
Aug 8, 2008
260
4
18
Red Deer, Alberta
Another option is to run a modified puch cylinder head as I do. It has about 50% more cooling area as well as a squishband to boot. I have used a temp gun on mine and after 5 minutes of idling was at 210-220 deg F around the sparkplug area. I don't know what it is when riding but the next nice day I will check it out.
 

Prasinos

Member
Dec 1, 2008
261
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16
California
I hear you all but i feel like i gotta at least try this (im sure you guys understand). I was thinking id wrap my cylinder in silicone mat and seal the fins to it. Id also file down some channels in each cooling fin so that there would be a path for the coolant to flow through. This question was more for a moped i plan on buying a water cooled kit for. Thing is, the pumps are mechanical and cost 90 bucks so i was thinking i could save by buying something like this and hoking it to a 12v source:

DC 12V Electric Centrifugal Water Pump 103 GPH (P-38I) - eBay (item 260586350386 end time May-14-10 19:29:09 PDT)
 

civlized

New Member
Apr 28, 2009
689
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Alabama
I hear you all but i feel like i gotta at least try this (im sure you guys understand). I was thinking id wrap my cylinder in silicone mat and seal the fins to it. Id also file down some channels in each cooling fin so that there would be a path for the coolant to flow through. This question was more for a moped i plan on buying a water cooled kit for. Thing is, the pumps are mechanical and cost 90 bucks so i was thinking i could save by buying something like this and hoking it to a 12v source:

DC 12V Electric Centrifugal Water Pump 103 GPH (P-38I) - eBay (item 260586350386 end time May-14-10 19:29:09 PDT)
Interesting. I have seen some old liquid cooled tractors that don't have a pump. The radiator is mounted above the engine and the natural flow of hot water up and cool water down circulates the water through the engine and radiator. I don't know, but it could be possible on this venture.
 

Prasinos

Member
Dec 1, 2008
261
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California
yea i was thinking about that too... There's that WWI machine gun that basically just allows the water around the barrel to boil and the steam goes into a condenser. I just feel like that would require a way bigger radiator, and at .5 amps that little pump could be run by a drill battery for 6 hours. Of course on a moped i would wire it to the generator and there would be no maintenance at all(Ideally).
 

civlized

New Member
Apr 28, 2009
689
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Alabama
That's true. Any kind of pump is going to help move it faster. I have no idea what the natural flow rate would be without a pump. Do you plan on using a thermostat or just free flow. The reason I ask is because, I think, one of the thermostats functions is to keep a bulk of hot water in the radiator for cooling before the water around the head gets hot and needs to be circulated rather than constantly flowing. I really don't know for sure, but I have a 300cc scooter that I removed the t-stat from and noticed that it ran hotter than normal. Put the t-stat back in and it seemed to stay cooler. Could have been a coincidence, but I left the thermostat in.
 

Prasinos

Member
Dec 1, 2008
261
0
16
California
Thats another thing, im not sure what temperature is ideal for these things. I have thermal switches for 170, 200, and 250 degrees f which i could use to run the motor. They are open switches that close when the tem is reached. I dont see that helping cooling though it would be neat.