I've owned this car for 8, almost 9 years. In that time I have had 3 water pumps. When I first got the car the water pump was leaking. I had it replaced by a shop at the time with a Delco unit. 2 years later it's spitting water from the weep hole. I replace it myself with a Delco. That lasts for 3 years and it begins spitting from the weep hole. I replace it with a duralast (the standard) and just 3 years later, you guessed another coolant leak!
Why does this keep happening? Do I just have bad luck or can something else in the coolant system cause this? My radiator is 8 years old, my upper and lower hoses are 3. Both seem fine. 180* thermo.

Also for a V-Belt can anyone recommend a good water pump? I was thinking of using the Car Quest heavy duty this time, since apparently it's aluminum. My car is an 86 IROC Z with V-belt, so keep that in mind.

 

Could just be a string of poor parts. That's the most common cause I'd think.

How tight are you getting the accessory belts? Maybe too much tension on one like the alternator belt? I have seen people be overzealous on tightening because that's what seems correct. It puts undue stress on components, may beat up a water pump seal.

 

No mystery here; it's due to the appallingly-poor quality of nearly all replacement auto parts on the market these days, especially for 35-year old vehicles.

I have no answer for this problem; even rebuilding units ourselves, we're still faced with trying to find good-quality bearings, seals, etc. Even at that, I'll rebuild a starter/alternator, water pump/distributor/whatever myself rather than buy a "rebuilt" on the open market. At least that way, I'll know the refurb/assembly was done correctly.

 

V belts tend to load one side of the pulley too much. Putting excess pressure/wear on bearing/seals. Could be that, as mentioned above check the tension. Does edelbrock still make water pumps? I had good luck with one of those.

 

I'll look into Edelbrock as well. Maybe the tension is just a tad too tight and it wears out the bearings.

 

I've had an Edelbrock on my car for 15 years and have had no issues with it.

 

Parts are being designed to break after "X" amount of time/use. A company has to stay in business somehow. OPTIMA Batteries is a prime example... They use to last a long time. That was their selling point at the time. Now they are still good batteries, but not as long lasting by design.

 

For your 1986 V-belt design, it should be Edelbrock #8811. Here's an old pic of mine. I think they're still available.


Regarding continue failure, my reply will be a bit cynical. Things other people have mentioned seem like good suppositions, such as belt tension, poor quality/parts, etc., but I also tend to think it's simply the decades-old design. I don't think they're necessarily designed to fail, but rather, just an old, weak, outdated design that nobody has ever tried to improve upon.

Water pumps on today's cars rarely fail, no matter how many miles are on them. In fact, I've never had a water pump fail on any of my cars, ever, except my Firebird. And all of those cars and trucks have been driven way beyond 200,000 miles, with some more than 300,000 miles, all by me, purchased new. And I've never done anything special to maintain any of them. Yet, water pumps for the 60+ year old SBC seem to fail on a regular basis.

On the other hand, it doesn't seem that there's much else that could've been done with water pumps for the SBC. And with the extinction of the SBC, nobody is ever going to try to reinvent its water pump. So it is what it is, and that's all it will ever be.

 

Ive had delco water pumps on my S10 and Formula for years and no issue. 3? on the Formula and 10 plus on the S10..I think they are the same pump / part number actually,.

The original in my S10 was still good at 200K but i was doing stuff and decided to change it out....i still have it.
The formula had the original since 87 but I only switched it because i went to serp belt... i still have the original lol


Maybe you are tightening the belts too tight causing strain on the bearings / seals ?


both my S10 and now Formula have a serpt setup. makes tightening it a breeze vs the old v belt stuff....... never again lol