With all of the discussion about the Weiand water pump with the backing plate modification, is there any reason I should not just buy the flowkooler pump itself? I did notice that the flowkooler pump is about $50 less than the weiand, is the price difference the old "you get what you pay for"?

I even noticed they have a Pantera specific listing that can be seen here.. Does anyony have any experience or advice on these pumps?

Thank you.

I used a Flowkooler and a Robert Shaw 180 degree stat in my new 393 alloy head stroker.
I think the pump flows better than the stocker at idle but hard to really know for sure. Nice aluminum unit though. Bolts right up.

FlowKooler claims the pump flows better at low rpm, the kinda thing you need for trucks & RVs slowly climbing a steep grade. Or perhaps a Pantera that wants to over-heat at idle or while crawling through stop and go traffic.

But ...

Years ago I asked Flow Kooler for a graph of their pump's performance over a wide range of rpm, at least to 6000 rpm. They never provided that information. Their impeller looks like an egg beater, my fear is that performance at low rpm has been achieved at the expense of performance at higher rpm.

My recommendation is always the Edelbrock pump, which has a real deal curved vane cast impeller, just like the impellers Ford offered over the counter through the OHO parts program. Its the only pump for the Clevo that has this type of impeller.

cowboy from hell

Does the Flow Kooler pump need the internal bypass passage drilled out?

I am really impressed with Stewart Components. I purchased a Ford motorsport pump several years back. Like another Pantera owner, after tracking the car, the impeller broke off. That's right two pumps died the same way.

So I did some research and found these guys.
http://www.stewartcomponents.net/
They have different stages of pumps. Depends on how wild you want to go.

Larry Stock at Partnera Parts Connection keeps several of these on the shelf.

End of the story as explained by Stewart. Ford Motosport switched suppliers. My old pump was from some other manufacturer. Stewart is now the new supplier of that model Ford Motorsport water pump. Sure enough, when the new Ford Motorsport pump showed up, it had a Stewart label on it.

" I asked Flow Kooler for a graph of their pump's performance over a wide range of rpm "

Basically George is right ... any pump should be supplied with a pump curve .. the needs of a PANTERA with radiator in the front and 20' of extra tubing and 90 degree turns adds to the head pressure and velocity needed to deliver the cooling water to the radiator and back .. the looks, feel, of a pump makes no difference ... especially if they have that steel blender looking impeller .. in the pump business we laugh at that ... a true cast impeller with vains is what you need. There is no comparison between the 2 .. technically if I had a lot of time I could test all three pumps on a bench and see what the flow rates are .. but would rather the manufacturers provide the curves.

Ron