Generic question: Are Gates water pumps built by walruses or something? I've used Gates for a long time and had good luck. For this vehicle, I needed a new water pump and ordered up a Gates unit. It has great reviews, and I bet it will last a while, but this caliber of manufacturing has me astounded. The other choices at Rock Auto and other sites looked to be of similar caliber.

Warning: This picture is of a water pump for a non-Ford engine. There is no non-Ford section at FTE, but I felt that my best bet for getting viewed by someone with useful answers would be here.

- Is this edge chewed to shape by a beaver?
- Did this section of sheet metal sit in the weather for half a century before being stamped and zinc plated?
- Was this hand-cut by a 50 year old press in a dusty shop at the end of a small footpath on another planet?
- Was this ground to dimension by a guy eyeballing it and mashing it against the coarsest grinding wheel in history?



. . . or has Gates gone downhill while I wasn't looking?

The OEM pump that was installed by the dealership 120,000 miles ago wasn't much better looking in these regards.

While I'm here: Has anyone gone about smoothing corners etc. to reduce cavitation or improve pumping efficiency or the like? Hopefully this one is installed for the next 100,000 miles so I'd just as soon make it slightly better before I put it in if I can.

Yes, a little bit of a rant, but also curious if others have seen this elsewhere.

 

Given that 40% of the US population is obese, your waterpump was certainly handled by more than a few walruses.

 

Granted the water pump is vital to an engine's operation I thing OP is over reacting just a bit. I'm sure this sort casting roughness isn't new or particular to any one brand of manufacture but as long as the vanes move coolant this sort of thing shouldn't be any sort of detriment.

If manufacturers took time to polish these vane would it be acceptable to 2-3 times more for that treatment?

 

I see what you mean. I'm not looking for polished and perfect, but this just seems like poor quality and finish for a Gates pump. I guess the "Made in China" stamped on the box means something. As long as it has a Gates quality bearing and seal I'll be happy. If I were a shop, I'd slap it in there and not think twice about it.

 

I'm sure you, me and millions of others have done the same thing, slapping something in and not worrying about it too much going forward. Sure what you see would suggest poor quality but look back 40+ years as a DIY mechanic I've never paid attention to the water pump vanes, never noticed any real big lowering quality or longevity.

I have a few brand new uninstalled Motorcraft water pumps for the 5.4 engine, when time permits I'll check them for similar issues, will post photos as well.

BTW this is the HVAC sub-forum, your question or observation might have been better posted in one of the engine sub-forums?

 

I agree. I've been bit a few times doing that too, often when Napa had changed ghost-manufacturers on me. Most water pumps that I've dealt with have been open impellers, not enclosed like this one. Those tend to be cast or single-stamped, and the single-stamped ones look way better quality than this.

Thanks, I appreciate it! I just looked at pictures at Rock Auto. 5.4 open- and enclosed-impeller pumps generally look like what I'd expect from an upper-tier brand like Gates. Smooth stamped edges, unblemished flat surfaces, etc. I'm curious what you find when you look at yours.

I ended up here sort-of on purpose, but thought it might not be exactly the right forum. If I had started this thread in one of the engine forums, I believe it would have gotten caught up in "that's not a Ford x.xL water pump, yada yada" and not gotten any answer to my questions. There is no generic "Cooling System" forum. Since this one is called "Cooling, Heating, Ventilation & A/C" I decided I'd ride the "Cooling" part of the name. Since the folks that know about HVAC here have a good feel for vehicles' cooling systems in order to diagnose HVAC issues, it's a pretty good fit. The non-FTE forums available for the engine that this water pump goes in don't generally have good answers at this level. Here at FTE, there are plenty of folks that dig in deep and know about the details, so I figured I'd give this a shot.

 

I have added a stainless steel disc to the impeller to keep coolant on the vanes, using stainless steel rivets. My first one was on a "Flow Kooler" water pump, I liked the idea. They used to offer the disc alone as a kit, or whole water pumps



Like that

 

Sorry, just saw this. How well does this hold up? I'd be concerned that the rivets would rot away or loosen with heat cycles or something.