have you put urethane around the grill to stop air?depending on design/luck of the grill, it may suck air in any case
to stop air bleeding around grill edges
http://www.google.com/patents/US8070538Patent describing why the 155mm kawasaki pumps have the notched stator
After reading the article it wasn't clear to me why wouldn't you just space the impeller further forward? I.e bigger gap between the back of the impeller and the front of the stator.
to reduce pressure loss by minimizing a distance between the impeller ... and the fairing vanes