I'm thinking of replacing my water pump with a remote electric unit mounted somewhere towards the front of the car, and then running AN lines though much the cooling system (with custom flanges/fittings wherever needed). Some of the reasons I think this might be cool (pun intended):

1. Frees up space in the engine compartment, making the VoD easier to access, clean, and investigate.
2. Reduces rear weight bias a tiny bit (every pound counts!).
3. Eliminates long heater return line from front to back of car (reducing front-to-rear coolant lines from four to three).
4. Puts otterstat in return line from radiator rather than feed line to radiator, possibly reducing unnecessary fan activity.
5. Allows the water pump to be configured to run only when the engine is above a certain temperature, decreasing warm-up time to optimal temperature.
6. Allows the water pump to be configured to run for some time after the engine has shut off.
7. Eliminates failure mode of engine overheating with a shredded/malfunctioning belt.
8. Reduces unnecessary engine load at high RPM (I doubt this would be noticeable, but every horse counts!).
9. Makes water pump and/or thermostat replacement trivial later down the line.
10. AN fittings eliminate leaky hose connections and greatly reduce maintenance pain.

I created this crude diagram to help get straight all of the routing. This moves the thermostat, otterstat and water pump out of the engine compartment and close to the radiator. Though I haven't yet looked at exact options for mounting locations, I suspect I can find a place up front that's accessible with reasonable ease from under the car.



Would love to hear your thoughts, especially if anyone has made significant modifications to the cooling system like this before. Right now this is mostly a thought experiment, but if I decide to pursue this further, I'll document any progress made here.