Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General replacement water pumps...v6

ok, newbie here. i understand the importance of changing out the stock ford water pump in favor of one with a metal impeller in order to prevent breakage. these forums have been extremely helpful in getting up to speed.....on a variety of issues associated with these cars. thanks!

i have a new to me 98 'stique ls v6, auto.

question is this- short of taking the existing water pump off the block and looking, is there a reliable way to tell if you have a stock water pump or an after market replacement? what should/can i look for as an indicator? hopefully there is something which will tell me.....

thanks all......lakeside

welcome,

you are welcome

i don't think you can tell from outside. if there are differences, I didn't really notice (I replaced 2: black -> tan in '96; tan -> metal in '98).

for the record -- and I know it was covered here before so I am not alone -- I am not entirely happy w/ metal impeller w/p: the car runs slightly hotter.

if you decide to open and look, flush the coolant in the process.

I am not entirely happy w/ metal impeller w/p: the car runs slightly hotter.

Hmm...that's the reason I replaced my plastic one in the first place. I'd been reading about the failed pumps on here for months and the temp started moving to the right half of NORMAL. Since it had over 70,000 miles I figured it was time to replace it when it was convenient for me, not after waiting for the thing to disintegrate.

My metal impeller pump keeps the gauge between the O and the R most of the time.

Did you install a new thermostat and flush out the system while you had the pump off?

Are 98's and above prone as much as earlier (same pre-98's with defective engine wiring)?

There are also replacements with white plastic impellers (or a light gray) I have the light gray kind. I'm always in O or R.

I know of now way to determine if your's is stock. Do you see a Ford stamped on the metal somewhere??

Did you install a new thermostat and flush out the system while you had the pump off?
no and yes

don't get me wrong, having the needle on the left side of R rather than left side of O is tons better than replacing shattered w/p in a parking lot in MI in the middle of February.

I am simply indicating that somewhat smaller impeller of a metal pump makes it "one letter" hotter, that's all. (memo to me: I need to hook up Auto X ray and see what is the difference in degrees).

Welcome Walt. Alex is right you can't tell from the outside.

Unless your car came from a CEG'er it likely doesn't have the metal impeller pump. Shops usually just replace with OEM or equivalent.

Concensus here seems to be that the failure rate of the originals get quite high at around 60,000 miles and above.

Nate, regarding the 98+, both my SVT and Mystique are 98's and both died .

Regards, Alan

98 water pump died right on schedule last week... Just about 115000 Km on the od. My girly soft computer working hands are all beatup now trying to swap that darn thing out. Not a lot of room to move in there...

AFAIK, 95-98 used the black impellar which is very prone to failure. 99-00 used the white / tan improved impellar, less prone to failure, but still plastic. I put in the metal WP at 63K for peace of mind. I noticed no increase in temps. My temp guage has no letters on it, but it seems to be in about the same place as it was before. I did not flush the coolant. I wanted to, but I barely had time to do the WP swap. IMHO, I don't think it's all that critical to flush it unless the WP has failed and you need to get the impellar debris out. I plan on flushing in September.