Water Pump Replaced

[dyeager535]

From my trip of failures, this is the first repair.

Not bad looking for like 20 years. Not speaking about the worn out bearing lol. Not sure where the gaskets came from, but they were nice rubberized (?) metal core pieces.

I've had a trail spare waterpump for awhile, long enough I can't remember where it came from. It's in a Duralast box, and it's aluminum. Obviously a "heavy duty" designation based on the impeller design.

Not sure how I'd really measure it, but it *seemed* to take a significant amount of time to get to my fan-on temperature, which is higher than thermostat opening temperature. Temp climbed pretty normally/consistently from cold, but slowed down quite a lot once it got to thermostat operating temp, more than I had noticed in the past. I wanted it to get hot so it would burp as much air as possible, and make sure the system was holding pressure. Which it wasn't. Of all things (I thought it was the back cover, which would have been a real pain and also all my fault for looking inside lol), the pipe plug on top of the pump wasn't tight enough. Relatively easy fix, the 3/8" Allen could be turned with a 10MM wrench (obviously the same hex "blank" used for both metric and standard) as a ratchet won't fit with the TPI fuel lines there. I've not had cooling problems, so I'm not really worried, but excess cooling capacity is never a bad thing.

And why I'd like to find a different lower hose. I used a zip tie last time, but I expect since the hose expands and contracts, it wasn't even holding my rubber shield in place. I don't think metal is the right answer either, but I had it around so why not try? As you can see, there is nothing in the way requiring the crazy bends in this hose, If I could find a hose that pointed at the radiator outlet I'd run it.

 

[Polymath]

Was the original bend in that hose not designed to clear around the fan shroud? That's what I would assume anyway. I'm not a huge fan of the ribbed flexible "universal" hoses but that could work. You also have the option of finding various degrees of pre-bent pipes that you can cut and clamp the hose ends onto. Something like exhaust tube bends.

 

[Wes Harden]

Yes original fan shroud required those bends

 

[dyeager535]

Yeah, you are probably right, I haven't run a mechanical fan for decades.

I don't even know where to begin to research to see which hoses have the right ends, then dig through all the options to try and find one with the correct angles. Unfortunately still would need two bends.

 

[Wes Harden]

Take the old hose into the store and start comparing find a hose that starts and stops in the same plane. Might have to cut one outta the middle

 

[bigjimmy82]

“Not sure where the gaskets came from, but they were nice rubberized (?) metal core pieces.”

I’m not sure if these would be reusable, but they don’t need RTV. Have put them on 2 trucks so far. They do seem to have a thin metal core, and come shrink wrapped on cardboard.

 

[Wes Harden]

Not sure I have ever used rtv on Chevy V8 water pump. I don't think you should.
One thing about the small block gen gaskets, they can be made from a cereal box. Now the metal sandwich wp gaskets I have seen on Japanese engines are reusable.

 

[dyeager535]

Not sure I have ever used rtv on Chevy V8 water pump. I don't think you should.
One thing about the small block gen gaskets, they can be made from a cereal box. Now the metal sandwich wp gaskets I have seen on Japanese engines are reusable.

I used a VERY light smear of RTV on the pump side of the paper gasket to try and get them to hold in place while I installed the pump. It's a bit tight with the alternator bracket (TPI uses a weird attachment, so best not to remove it) which means I had to slide the pump under the lower mounting ear of that bracket, plus the electric fan setup is JUST close enough to the alternator it takes a bit of finagling to get it lined up.

So far so good, but haven't run it except to get it up to temp once.

RTV on the block there would be a bear to remove and is a reason I don't use it anywhere unless I feel I need to. I wouldn't be surprised if I could have reused the 20 year old gaskets. Not going to, but I bet they would have worked.

 

[Wes Harden]

true, I use Gasgacinch to keep the gaskets in place while installing. a thin bit of rtv would do the same.