Why does every OHC, pushrod-less engine I've ever driven have such a soft bottom end power delivery? Drive any 'modular' Ford V8, for example, and it's like mush until the revs come on.
"Mush" is actually righteous, it reduces tired commuters and soccer-mums stalling outright and blocking traffic. Sounds as it you grew up on Pierce powered fire trucks,
big Packard OHV's, or early MOPAR Hemi's as could shift a 2-speed slush box into high range at 15 MPH, stay in the same gear to around 120-plus MPH?
4.2 Fomoco Jaguars, the "NA" 295 HP flat-out EATS the poopercharged, not fartercharged "R" models off the line. Settling for 172 MPH top-end vs 206 or wotever is not really any great loss, jailbird life as it could be, even off the back of 'tronic governing to a max 150-152 MPH. Sanity check, it is just a by-product of tall gearing for decent MPG delivery, "real world" highways.
Meanwhile, MOPAR and GMC have built motors with power curves so damned end-to-end flat they'd trip an EKG monitor in an Intensive care ward into "flatline" of Cardiac arrest.
All about what the application
needs, ain't it?
"Cavitating" a water pump never made a lot of sense to me, either, BTW.
Serious pumping work to be done, no mains 'lectricity? A Diesel set right-on optimal RPM is your probable winner, one-lung air or water-hopper cooled on-up to "many", bit of mounting frame welding and shaft coupling the only "machine shop" work needed, if-even that much. Rice-farmers do this all over Asia, after all.
Belgian-American Leo Goosens, Harry Miller's good right hand, knew about as much about geared OHC drives as anyone who ever set India ink to vellum.
Even so? Far, far more 351 Ford "Cleveland" based or Dagenham 116E 4-banger based mills actually FINISHED and WON races than his Novi V8 ever even
finished.
Horses for courses... or now and then? Even a few of Cosworth's clever MULES?