I have 175,000 on my truck, and was doing belt, hoses, radiator flush, etc... and started wondering about the lifespan of the waterpump.

Any ideas?

 

Mine started to dribble at 220 or 230,000

 

Just changed mine at 160K - had started dribbling and I had to drive 600 miles the next day. They are comparatively cheap at $55 and very easy to change out. Do it now and don't worry about it for another 150K miles.

 

mine was leaking at 198,000miles
and very easy to change

 

I have had waterpumps last well over 500,000 miles on this engine. Just be sure you do your cooling system maintenance regularly.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

Are you checking the weep hole for leakage (when you are saying that it started to dribble)?

Tackett

 

I searched over an hr last week trying to find my weep hole on my 97 and finally gave up. I used and awl and scratched and scratched and could not find it. I think they forgot to put one on mine. Is it that important to find it? This is the first diesel truck I have owned.

 

Your pump must have been changed. The pumps had a weep hole towards the middle of the engine about half way up on the pumps up to about 2000 or around there. The newer pumps just have a depression in the casting where it bolts to the block, right near the bottom. For all practical purposes you cannot see a weep hole although it is there, just made different. Look for seepage from the bottom of the pump where it bolts to the block.

 

1st and 2nd gen up to '98. From above and just in front of the alternator pulley, look down to the water pump.
The weep hole is at about the 7:00 position, below and to the left of the pump shaft.
The end of the pencil is sticking into the weep hole.
Use a pipe cleaner or a piece of wire to knock scale and dirt from it.

 

Thanks so much for the picture!.

 

Thats is exactly where I was looking last week and I cannot seem to find a hole there at all. It must be really crudded up bad because I used a very slender awl to scratch and poke all around in that spot and could not find a hole.

 

My 96 had the weep hole in the bottom of the vertical face parallel to the block on the block side of the water pump - the "right side"of the picture above down almost to the front cover. Mine appeared original so there may have been variations between the years. Will post picture when I get home this afternoon.

 

A pic would be great redramnc!
Thanks

 

what does the wheep hole do? I have never cleaned mine with 141k on my truck
DM01

 

The weep hole is intended to let excess lubricant from the bearings/bushings drip out rather than get forced past the seal into the coolant, and also let coolant drip out when the seal goes bad rather than contaminate the lubricant in the bearings. It also provides the first indication that the shaft seals/bushings are starting to go and failure is around the corner. Many times they do what the name implies, weep, it's just doing it's job without much in the way of visible symptoms, when you can easily notice leakage then trouble is coming. If it's plugged it obviously doesn't do these things.

These pumps seem to be quite variable in their lifespan, best bet if you're concerned is to carry an extra, they're cheap and replacement is very easy.