Hope this helps someone. A really quick and easy way to check the condition of your water pump. Simply grab your fan blade and rock it back and forth. It should be solid. If it's rocking, watch to see that the pulley is also rocking and the looseness is not in the fan clutch. If the whole thing is moving, your water pump bearings are shot. How do I know this? Cause mine are worn and I didn't feel like waiting till it starts weeping to find out. Also got a trip to Miami coming up... 10 hour drive each way.

 

Just bought a GMB water pump with metal impeller. The current pump is a Murray from O'Reilly's. It has roughly 82K miles on it and is still not leaking, but as I mentioned previously, the bearings are worn. Only reason I don't go get the same pump again, is that the impeller is plastic and I prefer metal.

Hey, are you guys using RTV along with the gaskets, or just installing dry? This is the pump I got...

 

I put a thin layer of RTV on both sides of the water pump gasket. Makes sure I don't end up with leaks.

 

agreed with heyyou. About a 2-3 micron coat of RTV

 

The GMB water pump finally arrived. Took ten days to arrive from Amazon via Fedex. This thing is a lot bigger and heavier than I expected. Shaft turns smooth. The metal impeller has some razor sharp edges from machining. Looked all over it and couldn't see where it was made. On the box and it said "Premium global OE supplier" marked prominently. Then I found it in the tiniest font possible, as if hiding.... "made in China." LOL

 

Everything is made in china these days. Makes me wonder what we are going to do, if we ever end up at war with them. (which seems likely......)

 

Won't you know it. I bought this water pump just to be proactive. It arrived two days ago and I picked up the RTV just yesterday, for the job. I started the truck this morning and for the first time, the water pump started chirping and growling. My timing couldn't have been more on point!

If anyone cares, the Murray pump lasted exactly 82,467 miles, before I heard the sounds. You can't go wrong buying it, esp with lifetime warranty. The GMB I bought on Amazon wasn't as pricey, but it didn't have lifetime warranty either.

Don't know how much longer I will have this truck, but it has been very reliable and predictable for the most part, if someone goes wrong. The drive-train feels like it has another 300K's worth of life left in it.

 

Got the new water pump installed tonight. I'm going to let the RTV dry till tomorrow before I reinstall the fan, shroud etc. The old pump feels very tight to turn by hand, like it was binding up. New pump spins free and smooth. The old pump's plastic impeller was in perfect shape, btw. No sign of wear there.

One thing I found odd with the new pump is that the weep hole (I assume it's the weep hole) sits right at the top of the pump body and has no cover. The old water pump had a plastic or rubber plug covering the hole. I tried removing it so I could move it over to the new pump, but it disintegrated with my attempts. The hole is in such a position that If one were to power wash or spray the engine, the water would go right into it. Looking down into the hole, I can clearly see the WP shaft and can see it turn if I spin the pulley. I decided not to leave the hole open, so I put a dab of RTV on it. If coolant were to leak past the bearings in the future, I doubt that the dab of RTV would be able to hold it back from exiting the weep hole. Right now I want to keep liquids out. Hopefully lack of air will not be an issue for the bearing.