Ive gone through about 4 water pumps on my 74 maverick with a 302. Same thing happens every time. The gasket on the water pump blows out and the car starts pissing water through the gap. Ive replaced the radiator, thermostat and hoses but still having the issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Sounds like a sealing issue,not a pump problem.How many PSI is the rad cap? Does the car run hot?...Lose coolant???(other than the leakage)
Car doesnt run hot or any other leaks besides the primary issue i described. Honestly im getting these water pumps from autozone so im pretty sure they arent plained properly. I had a buddy tell me it might be because the fan isnt balanced properly.
Bad fan would kill the shaft seal.You keep loosing the seal at the gasket correct??? If so...yeah may be poorly milled mating surfacese on the W/P.
I will try one more water pump this weekend. If I still have the problem I will just upgrade to a performance one.
Check your bolt lenghts. More than once I've had to use washers to prevent water pump bolts from bottoming in their holes when replacing a water pump.
Are you using sealer on the bolt threads? Some of the bolts pass through the water jacket...without Permatex #2 they will leak. I don't buy anything made out of metal from Auto Zone...only air fresheners that look like Christmas trees and candy bars
This may sound funny but you may have streched bolts from over tourqe. this causes the bolt to bottom out before it can create enough presure to seal the gasket. I think I read someone mentioned this, I second that. As many times as you have had your pump on and off it possible you really tried to tighten those bolts. Good luck. Also use napa pump.
I always use a sealer like Ultra Copper Permanatex on the gaskets, that way if the surface is off slightly, the sealer will fill it in. Easy to get the bolts mixed up, too. I usually have to change mine around a time or two because some are just slightly longer than the others, if you put the longer ones in the wrong holes, they will never tighten up, and the shorter ones in the longer holes will never start right. And like Jeff said, a touch of sealer on the bolts doesn't hurt, either.
I will try all these things guys. Wish I could do it right now but man it is storming like crazy outside so I will probably take care of it tomorrow. Also I am going to go with the edlebrock w/p from napa. Little more pricey then the others but rather pay a little more to know it works.
keep in mind that there is the possibility that the timing cover could be warped or corroded enough to where the gasket will not stay sealed. Just a thought.
