I have a 2006 1500 with 5.7 Hemi. In March I replaced the water pump. I found conflicting information on the use of RTV. The factory manual doesn't mention it at all. Haynes says to use it. Folks have opined that sealant is unnecessary. Since the OEM water pump did not have sealant, I went that way.

7 months and 10,000 miles later, the gasket started leaking badly. This time I used RTV as instructed by Haynes. No leaks. Just a 2 hour PITA to do the job again.

Other differences are the torque settings on the water pump bolts. Haynes says 30 FP and the factory manual says 18 FP. I split the difference this time.

On the old pump all of the bolts were nice and tight. I did notice that the gasket appeared to be flattened out in a manner that IMO affected its ability to do the job. This was a Mopar pump and gasket.

Anyone have a similar experience.

 

No. I followed the Dodge maintenance manual. No sealant and manual torques for all the bolts.
I also made sure the front block surface was scrupulously clean and wiped down with brake de duster before I put a new OEM pump on.
Nearly two years on and 20K miles and no issues.
Al.

 

I followed the Haynes manual (it's the only one I have) a little over a year ago for mine.NAPA water pump and I did use the small amount of RTV mentioned.I have more than 7K miles and no problems so far.

My Haynes manual says 18 FP for our engines,but 30 FP for 5.9,8.0, and V10s. You may have misread as it is directly under the 5.7 numbers.

 

I probably misread the manual. I was fairly agitated at the time. However, I only went to about 20 fps. That seemed plenty tight to screw into aluminum.

 

I did about 3 yrs and 75000 miles ago. No manual and yes rtv and also rtv'd the gasket on also. no problems what so ever

 

I used acetone to clean things up both times. What it may come down to is the fine Brazilian made gasket that came with the Mopar pump. Go figure. In retrospect I don't think using a little RTV hurts. From the comments it seems that it doesn't make much difference.

Thanks for your input.

 

You have to ask yourself however. If a sealer was needed, why put a rubber gasket in the kit?
Manufacturers are all about saving money. So with the gasket groove already machined into the pump housing, they could leave out the gasket saving a lot of money over the millions they must produce, and have us all run a bead of silicone sealer right in there at our expense.
If you look at the rubber gasket, it sits proud of the pump housing in the groove. That's a design feature enabling the gasket to squash down and make a seal between the two faces of the pump housing and the engine.
No for me if there's a gasket there to be fitted, no sealer is necessary or why include one in the first place? Otherwise we would all be putting some kind of a sealer on our head gaskets
Just IMHO and experience.
Al.
PS just watch someone now give an example of a gasket and sealer being used together lol.

 

abarmby:

I understand and agree to a point. That is why I didn't use RTV in the first place. However, it did not seem to work as designed in my case. Since I apparently learn best after being kicked in the head, I'm just trying to figure out if it was something I did or didn't do, or whether it was a simple gasket failure.

As I stated before and as you so eloquently coined the term "proud", when I removed the pump, the gasket was either flush with the top of the groove or appeared to be slightly below it. On the new pump (one assembled in the USA from foriegn made parts-whatever the f.... that means?!!), the gasket appeared to sit higher in the groove. But that is only from my memory which seems to wane as the years get longer.

Thanks

 

That means just like it sounds. All of the parts and pieces of the pump were manufactured outside the United States and then imported by a company to a location inside the borders of the United States. From there, the parts and pieces were assembled into the finished product by US (aka American) labor.

There's a good chance the parts and pieces were made in Mexico or Asia, which is not uncommon considering the number of trade/free trade agreements the US has with foreign countries.