Intercooler pump

[55fanatic]

Hey Jason/Tom,

While I was driving during yesterday's Yummies cruise, I experienced some symptoms of a faulty IC pump. The pumps on the E55 die fairly regularly, so I am attributing my symptoms to that, they are also fairly inexpensive too.

Want to see if my warranty covers this but if not, is this something you can get for me? I am looking for the Johnson CM30 IC pump

[BLKVIP]

also interested in price.

[55fanatic]

almost certain thats what my hesitation was yesterday... car heat soaked itself while I was chasing down Scott and the pump failed so it wouldnt cool and wouldnt engage the supercharger

[BLKVIP]

most likely. Noticed my temps got up and then immediately turned it down lol. but never had hesitation.

[Tom @ Speedlife]

We are looking into this guys and hope to have something soon. Unfortunately Johnson is not a brand carried by most automotive distributors as they are a marine company and these are marine pumps.

[55fanatic]

What about mesiere?

[Justin.b]

I actually work for a marine pump company, but we don't do one thta would be the right fit for this.

Johnson is known in the industry for having not the greatest quality. They tend to cut corners, and the performance of their products shows it. Is this pump in these cars belt-driven or is it 12v? If 12v, take a look for the Jabsco Water Puppy. It's a centrifugal head on a 12v motor and should be much more reliable than the Johnson. If you search for 'ballast pumps' you shoudl find a few more alternatives, since these pumps are used to fill/empty the ballast tanks on wakeboard boats.

-Justin

[Tom @ Speedlife]

They're 12V, the nice thing about the Johnson is it fits in the stock location. Other pumps need adapters/fittings or just need to be relocated. If I was doing one personally I would buy the biggest damn pump I could find along with a huge heat exchanger and an external reservoir that I put icewater in when I was driving hard. But I can understand the desire for people to keep things OEM looking or OEM+.
You can tell Johnson is more on the budget side when looking at comparable alternatives.

[Justin.b]

Crap, I just looked up that pump and I honestly can't believe they're using that pump for this application. It's essentially a centrifugal bilge pump - not the right pump design at all for trying to flow water through restrictive passages on a heat exchanger. It really should be a flexible impeller pump.

What size are the hose connections? If that's the pump type you're dealing with, you could probably get by with an aerator pump. If you use a cartridge style, you can just do the plumbing part of the install once and swap out motor/impeller cartridges when they fail.

-Justin

[Justin.b]

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...A#.UVn0FFf4J8E

I would guess that something along those lines could be easily adapted - and when it fails you can just swap out the motor cartridge and be back in business.

-Justin

[Tom @ Speedlife]

Uses 3/4" fittings IIRC

Pete and Brandon we are in contact with Johnson on these pumps but the employees there aren't the brightest, and if you've ever seen their website you'd laugh out loud.

[55fanatic]

They're 12V, the nice thing about the Johnson is it fits in the stock location. Other pumps need adapters/fittings or just need to be relocated. If I was doing one personally I would buy the biggest damn pump I could find along with a huge heat exchanger and an external reservoir that I put icewater in when I was driving hard. But I can understand the desire for people to keep things OEM looking or OEM+.
You can tell Johnson is more on the budget side when looking at comparable alternatives.

Because the cooling system is so atrocious in these cars, once people do anything more than basic bolt ons, trunk or even hood tanks come in the picture. I never plan to go that crazy with this car. A new pump and new heat exchanger should be sufficient for my build.

The OEM pump is a Bosch pump, which has been updated from its original design, should I stick with that?

[Justin.b]

I've seen their site. They are a competitor of ours, but we certainly don't lose sleep over them.

-Justin

[Tom @ Speedlife]

Pete,
From my research the upgraded Bosch pumps should be sufficient for a stock to mildly modified car and don't suffer from the same problems the OEM pumps do. You may be best off going that route, depending on cost. We should be able to track down that Bosch pump as well.

Justin, thank you for all the info. Great to have someone in a relevant industry point out some facts.

[Justin.b]

My bilge pump knowledge doesn't come in handy very often on automotive forums. I have to seize the opportunity when it arises. ;)

-Justin

[Zax65]

I just put my second IC pump into my s65, car has 50k on it, so the problem ain't confined you the 55 platform. Used upgraded factory pump under cpo.

[BLKVIP]

some good info. will await for updates.

[Justin.b]

Anyone on the North Shore with a pumped water IC I could take a look at? I'd like to take a look at the stock install location and plumbing to see if there's an easy way to put together a better pump solution for people who actually hit boost in these cars.

-Justin

[55fanatic]

You could take a look at mine when I change my oil soon?