Putting in my 3rd thermostat, (the spring side goes into the head right?). the other ones would stick closed at random? times. made the mistake of checking the water pump, it has some staning coming from the weep hole, not sure how long its been that way. the water pump looked fine but I replaced it with a reman. I put the pump in but it was leaking, I didnt use any gasket goop but did use some thread sealer on the bolts. not enough, I could see it leaking from one of them. Cant tell if it was leaking from anywhere else, but pulled the pump again to put sealent on everything when I saw a shiney line on the cylindar wall. Looked at the impellers and they are bent. Measured the distance between the pump mating surface and the impellers on both pumps and they are the same, except the diff where the new impellers are goofy.

Should I worry about the wear on the cylinder wall?
Recomended replacment water pump?
should I use gasket maker (thin coat) on the pump and the engine with the gasket sandwiched?
more thread sealer?
and what is the deal with the t-stats?? plenty of heat in the cab, gauge will peg hot, t-stat housing hot, hose at radiator and radiator ice cold. Got a IR thermometer in the mail today, will use it when I can get everything to stop leaking.

sorry for the long winded ...but I am fed up with having new coolant in the floor instead of me driving the truck.

The last pic is of the old pump, never leaked on me dispite the stain, thinking about putting it back in.

 

btw. 1978 F-150 4.9

 

Put the old pump back in, no leaks that I can see. drove it about 10 miles t-stat did its job but I wont call it fixed until the next cold snap. Its only been acting up when its in the teens. Not sure why that would effect it, the last time it spiked it was cold, but I had already drove it about 20 miles.

 

Holy cow, Glen, when you go for close-up shots you don't fool around!! So close-up I'm having a little trouble seeing things, but I wonder if the impeller is pressed far enough on to the shaft. Seems to be (?) quite a bit of gap between the tips of the vanes and the pump housing, which might tend to have the back of the impellor hitting things.

I don't like those stamped steel impellors they make nowdays.

 

I had the same thought, the one that was and is now again in there is not a ford part, but I know its at least 20 years old. they dont make em like they used to.
Waiting on the next cold snap to if its fixed or not, seems like the colder it is the less the thermostat wants to open. it was in the mid 20s this morning and the factory gauge was saying it wanted to go hot, but stayed in the normal. Last week it was single digits and I didnt get 10 miles before it started steaming and puking up coolant. Its in the mid 50s now and it took about 5 miles to get somewhere in the middle of the gauge.