Moco

Its a Gates pump. I trust Gates as a decent alternative to OEM, specifically went for Gates because I wanted to avoid the Chinese reman available at the parts store. Appears the Gates pump is a china one as well. Labor getting to the water pump is no big deal. The only hassle is draining the rad and catching all the coolant. I bet if I needed to I could have to pump in my hand in 20 minutes. I also thought about the possibility of a bad pump out of the box, but I just dont think its that. The issue here is something really simple or something really major. I dont think its major because the engine runs well otherwise.

Anyway, the truck is 90 miles away. If they take it to a shop for diagnosis, I'll be sure to update this thread. Otherwise, I wont have a chance to mess with it for a few weeks.

All in all, this is really not a hard platform to work on. If you have the proper tools, everything is relatively easily do able once you figure out the way to get there. Curiously, the only real fastener I found supremely aggravating was the lower driver's side bolt that holds the fan cover on. There is no easy way to get to it without a wobble extension or a sideways wrench. The only way to get it to turn is to put leverage on it at 45* with an open end wrench and get it so you can turn it with your fingers.

GUARDIAN

Just replaced my radiator with an all aluminum 3 row, (I know some will say overkill, I live in Vegas and it's my DD), I replaced that particular bolt with a zip tie, cinched it down real tight. So far so good.

dave1123

Hey man! Overkill be damned! It's better than boiling over in the hot sun, don't you think? Nice fix with the cable tie! Now if someone could only figure out how to tighten that lower trans cooling line....

GUARDIAN

When someone does figure out that lower trans cooler line, I'd like to know. Noticed while changing out the radiator that mine has a little dry rot going on. Going to have to change it out soon.

Moco

So to update the thread: the shop says that the waterpump was not maintaining a seal to the block because the bolt holes were stripped. When I took the original pump off, the old and corroded bolts mustve pulled threads out of the block. I didnt not see or notice anything unusual on the bolts. But on re-assembly, even though they took 22 ft/lbs of torque as per the manual, they apparently were not sealed correctly.

So there you go, Im an imbecile and didnt catch the problem.

dave1123

Not your fault. When you took the old pump off, the top half of the threads came out with the bolts, leaving just enough thread height to torque up, then system pressure overcame what was left of the thread! I've seen it happen before. Easy fix with heli-coil. Remember pressure is equal across the entire surface of the impeller so you've got a large area for it to work on.