I’m
not saying you can’t run to higher power – in fact, I’m sure
you can. The key word is “safely”, and maybe one should add
“long-term”. Unless you are measuring some internal temps,
how do you know when you start getting boiling around the plugs, or high
thermal stresses in other areas?
That's an interesting
point. Of course I can't prove there isn't boiling at a local
hot spot with the stock system. Do you know if this was
Mazda's criteria for setting a flow rate from the pump? In other
words, do we need some particular flow rate to avoid localized
boiling?
I have no way of knowing. Without
further information, I’m going to assume that even though we are only
talking about 1.5%, or less, of the engines output, the Mazda engineers aren’t
going to design in a bunch more flow than needed. But of course there are
different flow requirements for the same rpm at different powers, so I guess I’d
also assume that, for this aspect of cooling at least, things would be OK for
something close to WOT at a given rpm.
As I’ve suggested before, I don’t
see saving power consumption as a reason for considering an EWP, especially
considering the losses in converting mech energy to electrical and back again. But
for redundancy and/or configuration reasons, OK. Just be sure that with
the EWP you have sufficient flow rate to avoid cooling system problems
(internal and external), and be prepared to provide significant current to get
it. It just ain’t no free lunch. The rated flows and current
draws from the makers are just too good to be true, so they likely are not. The
laws of physics still apply. The only way you are going to get 55 gpm
with 10 amps (or whatever it was) is to help it along with no pressure at the
outlet, and probably some positive pressure at the inlet.
Al (I swear I will not say another word about EWPs; that
beheading thing is just too scary)