Hi Jones,
I did worked for the oil pump industry :laugh:
Passed my examen for theoretical design of pumps many years ago

epper:
Indeed higher speeds will cause cavity but it is depending on the impeller design, fluid and pressure. The impeller design on our waterpumps is very basic - at least from the pumps which I opened so far. With regards pressure, I am not so convinced there is a lot of pressure but fore sure the design of the impellers is asking for troubles. Sometimes just straight vanes. They should be curved in all directions...in best case they are curved vanes only in 1 plane.
Cavitation is a strange effect, a kind of micro burst possible to destroy your impellers. We had some test setups to show people and it can destroy huge blades. Witnessed big oil pumps (2 feet impellers) running at max speed with the outlet tube shut so worst case situation...the total building was shaking :stunned: and impellers 2" thick could bend. Crazy stuff.
Anyway, a CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) design on the pulleys would be great for you :idea:
CVT how it works
The idea is simple but to make it work requires some additional work.
An electric pump sounds best in your case.
You are running a high compression engine dissipating quite a lot of heat ?
Myself, I am planning to not hook up the heater matrix...it will be present part of the airco unit but not connected.