Leaking Water Pump?

[speedball3]

Some time earlier tonight I noticed large pools of coolant had formed under my Ranger. After peeking and poking, it looks like the water pump is leaking? It seems there is a small hole on the lower part of the water pump and the coolant seems to be originating from there. Not sure what the hole is there for, but it's in all the pictures in my Chilton's manual, so it must be there for a reason. I just don't know why. Any ideas? Any suggestions on how to fix the leak?

Here's a pic taken from under the truck.. It's a 94 4.0L, in case that makes a difference.

 

[Big Jim M]

That hole is the OVERFLOW hole! It is there to allow coolant that has leaked PAST the pump seal to escape. When coolant appears there it is time to getcha a new pump!
There is NO DOUBT about it! Your pump is TOAST! Install a new one before you burn your heads! THAT will be next and soon too.
Big JIm

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

That hole is the OVERFLOW hole! It is there to allow coolant that has leaked PAST the pump seal to escape. When coolant appears there it is time to getcha a new pump!
There is NO DOUBT about it! Your pump is TOAST! Install a new one before you burn your heads! THAT will be next and soon too.
Big JIm

^^^ X2

Richard

 

[speedball3]

Thanks for the quick replies guys! But ugh, this sucks.... it's what I dreaded. So, onto the next set of questions.

1. Are all *new* water pumps equal? Not considering re-man pumps. Also, no one (o'reilly, autozone, rockauto.com) seems to have Motorcraft water pumps, and they are also about 3x more expensive than non-motorcraft pumps.
2. I figure I might as well change out the upper and lower radiator hoses and probably some other other larger coolant hoses. Anything else I should do while I'm in there?
3. How hard is it to take the radiator fan off? Chilton's describes some sort of funky specialized tool (looked like two long open-ended wrenches), which I'm hoping can be rented from O'Reilly or something, but don't really know for sure.

Good thing the Ranger is resting in the garage right now and won't be driven until this is fixed. Or if I chicken out, it'll be driven straight to a mechanic, after I refill the radiator (but that's a bit sketchy).

 

[Big Jim M]

Easy-peasy!

Thanks for the quick replies guys! But ugh, this sucks.... it's what I dreaded. So, onto the next set of questions.

1. Are all *new* water pumps equal? Not considering re-man pumps. Also, no one (o'reilly, autozone, rockauto.com) seems to have Motorcraft water pumps, and they are also about 3x more expensive than non-motorcraft pumps.
2. I figure I might as well change out the upper and lower radiator hoses and probably some other other larger coolant hoses. Anything else I should do while I'm in there?
3. How hard is it to take the radiator fan off? Chilton's describes some sort of funky specialized tool (looked like two long open-ended wrenches), which I'm hoping can be rented from O'Reilly or something, but don't really know for sure.

Good thing the Ranger is resting in the garage right now and won't be driven until this is fixed. Or if I chicken out, it'll be driven straight to a mechanic, after I refill the radiator (but that's a bit sketchy).

1. Nope! Not all are equal! We put a "new" chinese pump on Sons 3 litre a few months ago and within three weeks it was leaking out that same hole! It was under warranty and the store guy said he had had a lot of returns on that BRAND.. Now the bastard tells us!!! So we went with another slightly higher price "new" pump, not motorcraft.. So far so good.
As a hint the first one wasn't zackly the same LOOKING as the motorcraft.. The second one was an exact match as though the foundry was the same that made the motorcraft..

2. ALWAYS install a new 195* thermostat when swapping out the pump.

3. The fans are easy-peasy! Before anything else is done put a open-end wrench on the nut and give it a whack with a bfh.. It might take a whack or 4 but it comes off really easy. It comes off the same way it turns.. When the engine is turning it that gets it tight.. I've never had to use two wrenches on any of them. The BELT holds the base tight enough to get it loose enough to turn it off by hand.
Big JIm

 

[speedball3]

Cool, thanks. Sounds like a pretty straight forward job, which is good. I'll let you guys know how it turns out in a couple weeks (won't be able to work on it for a bit). Feel free to bring up any other pointers or tips for the job!!

 

[martin]

The fans can be a real pig to remove, especially if you live in the rust belt. The last one I had to remove entailed welding steel bars to the pulley to jam it and two guys on the end of a four foot pipe.

 

[sholzy]

Now is the best time to flush the system.

Check and replace as needed:
Belts
Hoses (upper, lower, heater (both))
Radiator cap
Hose clamps

Replace:
T-stat

Did I miss anything?

 

[Big Jim M]

Thanks Martin!!

The fans can be a real pig to remove, especially if you live in the rust belt. The last one I had to remove entailed welding steel bars to the pulley to jam it and two guys on the end of a four foot pipe.

Living where I do I hadn't given a thought to the rust belt.. I'd keep my torch handy if I lived up there.. No Wait! I ain't coming so forgetaboutit..
I'm staying where the paint on my frame will be there when I trade her off..
Big JIm

 

[speedball3]

Yeah, the truck has lived in California all its life, so I shouldn't have to worry too much about rust. I've got a nice big breaker bar too so hopefully it won't be too tough to get the fan off.

I'll definitely be flushing/replacing the coolant, as it was a nasty brown color when it leaked out. I think I should've checked the coolant a little bit more! oops! is it easy to remove and empty the overflow reservoir? It looked like it was attached to the washer fluid tank, so emptying it might be a bit of a hassle. Good call on checking the hose clamps and heater hoses, I don't think I would've thought of those.

 

[speedball3]

Alright, so just an update on my waterpump... I finally got around to doing it, with Thanksgiving and travel pushing off the work, and then I would work it a couple hours a night here and there.

I ended up renting tools from O'Reilly/Kragen to remove the fan... works well enough. Didn't try using the wrench+hammer method, but then again, I don't think I have a wrench that long. Removing the old gasket material was the longest, most tedious, and most difficult part of the job. I tried credit cards, old plastic clips, finger nails, and finally, a razor scraper. The best tools were finger nails (surprisingly) and the razor scraper (was avoiding it cuz I was afraid I would damage the mounting surface...seems ok so far). I had a problem with my first water pump I bought, the impeller was interfering with the block after I put it on... which also meant I had to take off yet another paper gasket from the new water pump. Luckily the uncured RTV was easy to take off (but man, did I freak when it didn't just fall off on its own). The second water pump fit fine and seems to be doing the job for now. Thermostat swap was easy, but it was tough to maneuver the housing back onto the block w/all the fresh RTV gasket maker on it. Replaced upper and lower radiator hoses but reused old clamps. I also forgot to reconnect the heater pipe to the water pump, but I found out pretty quick when I was refilling the radiator.

My fan was cracked in a couple places, so I got a new one from Autozone, only to find out the new fan fitment brought the fan bolt heads about 5mm closer to the pulley bolts than the original fan. That meant the fan removal tools did not fit anymore and the bolt headers were too close for comfort. So the original fan went back on, it'll have to last a little bit longer.

The burping technique on the Ranger is different than what I'm used to. After the first startup and running for ab 5 min w/the radiator cap off, I shut off the engine because some leaked oil was starting to smoke, causing some concern. After peeking around, I figured it was fine, so I topped off the radiator and restarted the engine. At that point, the radiator started pushing quite a bit of fluid OUT of the fill hole... which was surprising to me (never seen that happen before), so I finally decided to put the cap on loosely. It was taking a while for the pipes to heat up, so I decided to take the cap off again, to make sure all the air was out.... at that point, about half antifreeze in the radiator blasted out of the fill hole... luckily it wasn't very hot yet. Oops. At that point, I just refilled the radiator, wiped & rinsed off the spilled coolant, let the truck run, and called it a night.

Anyway, thanks for all your tips and help! You guys definitely helped make the job easier and more approachable.

 

[sholzy]

You did turn the climate control heat selector to "Hot" when you refilled the radiator, correct?

 

[93rangerXLT4x4]

i had to change out my water pump in my 93' 4.0L and it wasnt that hard. i pulled the radiator out to give me some more room and it only takes a few mins. i also had to take the water pump out with the fan then attempt to swap the fan.

 

[speedball3]

You did turn the climate control heat selector to "Hot" when you refilled the radiator, correct?

Yeah, it was on full hot the entire time. I put it there when emptying the radiator (in hopes of draining as much coolant as possible) and left it there for the rest of the job.

After all is said and done, I'd call the job moderately difficult. No particular step is a killer and you don't have to jack up the truck or anything, it just takes a while to complete the job. Just in my case, it was made much more painful by the ill fitting water pump and fan (2 extra trips to autoparts stores, extra time to troubleshoot and decide on options).