New water pump on 2015 Gt

[CanadaCalvin88]

I just finished up installing a new water pump on my 15 GT over the weekend. I ended installing an aftermarket pump with a metal impeller as opposed to the Ford part with the plastic bits. Everything went well with the install, but after putting everything back together, paranoia set in. I'm worried about pieces of plastic floating through the block that came from the stock plastic impeller that broke up due to a failed bearing. Is there anything I can/should do to make sure the cooling system is not contaminated with plastic fragments?

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[ORRadtech]

There may well be tiny bits in it. If you feel you must, you could flush the system forward and backward a few times. You might get stuff out. And it's not that bad an idea for a system that old anyway. You're unlikely to get everything out though without a complete teardown to flush and blow out of all the coolant passages. But the coolant passages aren't that small and it's unlikely that any tiny bits that are in there now will cause any problems. If it were mine I wouldn't be worried.

 

[CanadaCalvin88]

There may well be tiny bits in it. If you feel you must, you could flush the system forward and backward a few times. You might get stuff out. And it's not that bad an idea for a system that old anyway. You're unlikely to get everything out though without a complete teardown to flush and blow out of all the coolant passages. But the coolant passages aren't that small and it's unlikely that any tiny bits that are in there now will cause any problems. If it were mine I wouldn't be worried.

Thank you, I appreciate the reassurance. I agree, without tearing the engine apart to thoroughly flush the passages, there isn't much to be done. I drained the radiator, and am going to put new coolant in it tonight. I'm probably just going to roll with it.

 

[accel]

made me want to replace the pump with the one with metal impeller in advance.

what is your mustang's mileage? wonder what mileage would be reasonable for a job like this.

P.S. oh, and what was the part # with the metal impeller you got?

were you able to recover plastic impeller parts as a part of flush\ install? I think they might collect in the bottom \ top of radiator ?

 

[CanadaCalvin88]

made me want to replace the pump with the one with metal impeller in advance.

what is your mustang's mileage? wonder what mileage would be reasonable for a job like this.

P.S. oh, and what was the part # with the metal impeller you got?

were you able to recover plastic impeller parts as a part of flush\ install? I think they might collect in the bottom \ top of radiator ?

My mileage is right 48000, which I wouldn't consider to be that much. I guess the bearing can go anytime on these pumps. The pump I ended up ordering was from rockauto. The brand was Dayco, and apparently comes with a 120k warranty if you register it. The price was $69 I think. As far as collecting plastic from the cooling system, I was only able to pull out the large impeller disk shown in my first post. Attached is a pic of the new pump.

 

[NGOT8R]

It would be a little bit of work, but you could knock out the freeze plugs in the rear of each head and flush it out really good with distilled water and then install an MMR head cooling mod.

https://www.modularmotorsportsracing.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=555

 

[Strokerswild]

Good old Ford, cheaping out where they should not.

 

[GTP]

It would be a little bit of work, but you could knock out the freeze plugs in the rear of each head and flush it out really good with distilled water and then install an MMR head cooling mod.

https://www.modularmotorsportsracing.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=555

Leave it to MMR to come up with good mods like this.

I looked into this before. It appears there is no easy access to the rear of the block and so that is why I forgot about it.

Am I correct?

 

[GTP]

The pump I ended up ordering was from rockauto. The brand was Dayco, and apparently comes with a 120k warranty if you register it. The price was $69 I think.

Hey OP that is a good find for us. Might be worth putting one of those on the shelf, just in case. Thanks.

Gotta love 6g forum.

 

[accel]

The pump I ended up ordering was from rockauto. The brand was Dayco, and apparently comes with a 120k warranty if you register it. The price was $69 I think.

Price you got was very good. I cxan see it for $80 before shipping right now at rockauto. Weird, it is available for 2015 but not 2017 year model. Aree they any different?

Btw, does it make sense to replace thermostat as well?

P.S. I remember other topics here on waterpump being hit or miss. iirc 50k miles was mentioned as a threshold mileage. Either it breaks around that or continues working for long time.

I personally feel like it is coolant flush time for mine... so maybe I should get the pump, thermostat coolant and replace it toghether with some hoses?

 

[ice445]

Good old Ford, cheaping out where they should not.

The plastic impeller isn't an issue unless the bearing fails and it makes contact with the housing

 

[luca1290]

Good old Ford, cheaping out where they should not.

Actually the plastic impeller is better than a metal one.
It's lighter and more durable, plastics are not corroded or eroded.

Plus, if the bearing fails it will not cut itself on the metal of the engine, damaging it.

 

[CanadaCalvin88]

Price you got was very good. I cxan see it for $80 before shipping right now at rockauto. Weird, it is available for 2015 but not 2017 year model. Aree they any different?

Btw, does it make sense to replace thermostat as well?

P.S. I remember other topics here on waterpump being hit or miss. iirc 50k miles was mentioned as a threshold mileage. Either it breaks around that or continues working for long time.

I personally feel like it is coolant flush time for mine... so maybe I should get the pump, thermostat coolant and replace it toghether with some hoses?

That's odd, I just checked rockauto after reading your post, and the same pump that I bought isn't even listed. No idea what's going on there. As far as changing the pump preemptively, that would have to be your call. Personally, I'd try and check for any play in the bearing on the water pump and go from there before throwing new parts at it. Who knows, yours could last another 50k. In my case, I really should have caught the problem before it failed. A week or two prior to the pump failing, I noticed a weird whirring noise coming from the engine bay at startup. I popped the hood and quickly looked over it but didn't see anything abnormal. If I looked harder, and got hands on it, I probably would have felt some play in the pulley on the water pump.

 

[Strokerswild]

Actually the plastic impeller is better than a metal one.
It's lighter and more durable, plastics are not corroded or eroded.

Plus, if the bearing fails it will not cut itself on the metal of the engine, damaging it.

Except plastics get brittle as they age and are heat cycled. I'll take a metal impeller over plastic anyday in an engine coolant environment. If a bearing fails the pump is done regardless of the impeller material.

 

[HKusp]

It's funny that you bring this up. I am in the middle of putting my built engine back together and was certainly not interested in re-using my plastic finned water pump with 48K+ miles on it back in the car after upgrading almost every other component. We are going to be turning this thing at over 8K rpms and I am worried about a plastic impeller coming apart. I was talking to one of the managers of a local auto parts chain here in the Baltimore region and he mentioned their premium brand, US Motor Works, that they carry. I picked it up yesterday for $85.85 out the door. They appear to be headquartered out of California.

In their catalog it is part # US8116


https://www.usmotorworks.com/catalog/

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