Has anyone tried a high flow water pump? I am really fixated on going to an electric fan set up, rationally or irrationally, and am wondering if this would help the radiator out.

The Tri Flow radiator from Eastwood is tempting, but if the three passes makes the pump less efficient it seems like a poor trade off.

 

The tri-flow isn't dependent on your pump to be more efficient. It's a pretty simple (and ingenious) design. It just creates multiple passes of the coolant through the radiator.

I like electric fans as well. I've seen first hand how well they worked in my 454 Chevelle (700hp engine build). I don't see the water pump as being a limiting factor for the cooling in these engines.

 

I've read criticism of the tri flow design that it will reduce the efficiency of the water pump.

 

The people leveling that criticism are pointing out that it COULD take more pressure to make it through the system. However, the only change is the routing, so the pressure change would be minimal at worst. The temperature change between the two that is shown would make up for any difference in reduced flow rate (not that I believe there would be any).

 

Unless the Efan can match or exceed the airflow of the original fan blade/fan clutch they're not the answer. Tried a $$$ efan setup on my 08 5.3L equipped H3 Alpha and yeah during the fall & winter it was fine. In the middle of summer it was a HUGE failure and almost cost me a perfecty good engine. Company that made the $$$ setup wouldn't stand behind their product so I went with the OEM setup, new fan clutch, and added a 12inch puller efan and that is a well working setup.