Cooling system upgrade questions
 

So a little backstory for those who haven't seen my oil temp/cooler thread....I am replacing/upgrading my oil cooling system this winter as mine was nowhere near big enough for what I'm doing. I have a 540 with a 14-71 blower and I plan to run the hardin thermostatic oil filter head and the 13 plate oil cooler to solve the problem.

My question is...I am also converting my belt setup over to a 500 efi serpentine setup while I'm at it and my sea water pump brought up some questions in my head. I currently just run the standard plastic merc pump, no thermostat, and a crossover and when I'm running hard the water temp will come up into the 160-175 range and sit there which is not alarming to me at all but thinking back to the oil temp issues, would it be a good idea while I'm changing everything to swap over to a 2 stage pump and split my oil cooling circuit from the engine cooling circuit?

My thought is to run one stage of the pump to the engine and run the other stage to my oil and power steering coolers and run an independent dump out the back for the coolers? Am I over complicating things or since I'm there would this be a good idea?

The pump I'm considering is this one...Hardin Marine - 2 Stage Sea Pump for Gen 4 & 6 Mercury Applications (hardin-marine.com)

I'm also curious if this pump can be made to work with the 500 efi serpentine pulley with some spacing and/or shimming to get it to line up??

Thanks guys!

A 2 stage pump definitely won't hurt anything but I wouldn't split it up between engine H2o/oil cooling. I run a 3 stage pump on my 1200's, 1 stage directly feeds the Intercooler and the other 2 feed dual 13 plate coolers and a trans/power steering cooler. I've never had any issues with my Temps creeping up... if anything they stay on the cold side. This is Great Lakes boating tho. I think you are on the right track with getting a thermostat for your oil Temps, that would be the first thing I would change/add. Don't want to be disrespectful but you are over thinking it.

Fair enough that's why I asked! hahaha so you're saying just stay with the single pump I have then? You said a 2 stage won't hurt anything but if I'm not splitting anything up would it still be an advantage to run a 2 stage just plumbed into one common outlet or stay single stage? I run my intercooler off of a dedicated pickup that is just force fed when underway...was told to do it this way when I originally set it up to avoid fuel puddling when idling...maybe this thinking has changed in the last couple years but that's the way I did it and it seems to work fine...I see 15-18 lbs going through the intercooler at WOT

I Had 1000hp engines in my Cigarette Top Gun and it was set up just like you have yours right now and it performed perfectly. The only thing I might have had that was different was a -4 water line that came off the engine I fed to the Intercooler so it had "some flow" at idle.

My Current 1200's Are Teagues and the only thing I have changed was adding Oil Thermostats. Bob is out in California where water Temps are a lot higher than the ones here in the Great Lakes so I think his oil Temps would get a lot higher than I could get mine. I noticed some condensation in my valve cover and once I added the t-stats that issue went away. From what I have read here on OSO is you should be concerned about oil temp and not water temp... get your oil stats done and if you have money burning a hole in your pocket you could go with the 2 stage pumps..lol

Not saying my setup is perfect... im just a Poor Dirt Farmer...

Sounds good thanks for the reply!!

Sidenote....you a grain farmer or?? I'm small time at the moment still working full time and farming on the side...only do 160-170 acres at the moment but looking for more. Been a farming family forever but it died off with my dad unfortunately and we lost the leases on most of the land but I'm trying to get it all back.

​​​​​​​I'm Cash Crop only mostly Soybeans, Wheat then Corn. Current farming just shy of 2000 acres at the moment. When things are good it's not enough but when things turn wet it's all I want... lol
​​​​​​​170 acres is a good chunk to have while working another job! Prices are out of touch recently and it's hard to justify buying land that's going to take 20 plus years to pay back.

Thankfully at least in our area, fertilizer and seed are starting to drop back down to reality....just about hung it up last year when I had to buy fertilizer but all of grandpa's stories were running through my head about rough years and I just had to press on. I would love to have enough ground to do it full time but like you said ground prices are outrageous!!

I`d run it like Jon the Farmer.
Combine both stages with https://www.hardin-marine.com/p-7413...mon-inlet.aspx
Double your volume and keep the intercooler as is.
To take advantage of the increased volume you will want to make sure you run enough overboard, obviously if you can`t get it out it`s useless.
I haven`t decided how I`ll run mine, 3 stages , I might do it like Jon, or do one stage per side and run the intercooler off the 3rd stage.

My 1150 Potters are set up this way.

Thanks for the advice! I think I will be ok with the increased volume as I never see anything on my pressure gauges unless I'm moving and I have dumps on the back of the intake with no stat or circ pump just wide open.

Would it benefit me at all to run a say -4 an into the chiller to get some kind of flow through it for long idle periods or just leave it alone?

Thanks again!!