Water Pump...and stuff

[F350Mike]

Year and a half ago water dripping from the water pump. OK, truck is 4 years old...expect it. Good old Ford dealer is going to fix it under warrenty. Now, year and a half later...yep, leaking again, aroung the pully seal. Of course this one is going to be on me. $350 bucks for the pump , $12 for a few Coors Light , and a few hours in the garage ...no problem. Is this a common problem with the PS water pumps or did I just get punked at the Ford Dealer? Any tricks to swapping these things out or is it pretty straight forward?

[toobadq]

Worst part is getting the fan off. If you don't have the right tools you might try AUTOZONE for a loaner.

[mschn99]

as toobad said, the fan is the worst, but normally the h20 pumps on the 7.3's fail based on milage, bout 100k on average each. the biggest thing that shortens their life is improper coolant change interval (every 30k) and not putting in the diesel coolant additive. it is used for two purposes. first off, there is a h2o pump lubricant in it, and secondly, older diesels were prone to pitting and cavitating in areas like the cooling passages behind the cylender walls. this is not a huge problem with the 7.3. but the pumps are comon. you should buy that coolant additive from ford, should be like 10 bucks, and add a full bottle when refilling your cooling system. also, replace the thermostat and gasket while your there, since you have to take the housing off of the top anyways, and also, the inlet tube has to be swapped, two 10mm bolts, but they tend to leak afterwards. there is a very small o ring that seals it and it is not enough, brake clean the surface after the o ring is installed and then lay a small bead of gray silicone over the o ring, this will prevent it from leaking. hope this helps.......Marc

[LS1powerhouse02]

like was stated earlier....the waterpump isn't that hard to take off once you get past the fan. Mine went out at 140,000 miles and from what i have seen that is about the norm. The truck now has about 250,000 and we haven't seen a problem yet so it should last for a pretty good while after it has already been replaced once.

[mgwerks]

Originally Posted by F350Mike

Year and a half ago water dripping from the water pump. OK, truck is 4 years old...expect it. Good old Ford dealer is going to fix it under warrenty. Now, year and a half later...yep, leaking again, aroung the pully seal. Of course this one is going to be on me. $350 bucks for the pump , $12 for a few Coors Light , and a few hours in the garage ...no problem. Is this a common problem with the PS water pumps or did I just get punked at the Ford Dealer? Any tricks to swapping these things out or is it pretty straight forward?

You might try installing a coolant filter kit from Dieselsite. It will catch all the evil things running through there like casting sand, coantamination and the like, and keep them out of H20 pump seals and radiator. I put mine in this weekend in about 20 minutes.

[F350Mike]

Thanks for the information guys ! ! !

MGWERKS, tell me more about this coolant filter....

[stroker222]

My waterpump is doing the same exact thing. leak comes from down around the pan gasket, but it coolent. I got the radiator and shourd out, Now that dang fan.... What do i use (tool name, if i need to get a loaner) and how do i do it. Those 4 bolts on the pulley, there not anything i have, 10mm is the closest i could get to it. I am stuck right now, so please help.
Also my whole fan and pulley wiggles up and down, like the seal is gone or the shaft is messed up.. is that common? The cheapest new waterpump i found was $186 and my local store. Anything cheaper you guys know of?

Thank you for any help

[sootyoil]

I got tired of conventional coolant related failures in my diesel truck and other vehicles so I ditched the rotella ELC coolant I was trying to use, and purchased Evans NPG+ waterless, lifetime, coolant and 3 years later not an ounce missing or any failures in my cooling system, or in any of my other vehicles including my dirtbike and road course car. regular coolant with water just sucks,:laser: makes a crook out of mechanics that recommend it, aka "job security" :handguns:

[Jeff_Northon]

Call around for a better price on the pump. On my 7.3 (1996) dealer wanted $289, $117 from autoparts store.