Well about 2 weeks I noticed the truck dripping coolant from the a/c compressor. After going under the hood I noticed that it must have been leaking for a while because there was orange spray marks on a few things under the hood, and not to mention there wasn’t any coolant in the over flow bottle. To make a long diagnosis short, I ended up figuring out that the water pump was leaking coolant. It seemed to be a slow drip with the engine running, but once the engine went off it became a decent sized puddle, maybe about the size of a softball. I replaced the pump with a new one from Napa. I probably would’ve bought a genuine Cummins one, but funds are a little tight right now. Overall I’ve had pretty good success with Napa parts over the years so I felt fine about not going OEM.

Anyway I finally got a chance to change out the pump today and it went pretty smoothly. The hardest part was just getting the pump itself out from under the alternator and past the fan shroud. Overall though, it was pretty simple. After I got the old pump off, and got the new one out of the box, I noticed how shallow the weep hole on the old pump was, or that’s what I thought. I started picking at the weep hole on the old pump with a dental pick and all of this gunk and crud came out, (see pictures below). After I got deeper into the weep hole I got some more residual coolant out, but it was pretty nasty looking, as well as pretty nasty looking in general inside the weep hole.

Just thought I’d share the pictures and see what you all's opinions might be on what could have caused this. The pump I took off seemed fine, the bearings were nice and tight, and the gasket didn’t have any kind of marks in it. I’m guessing this gunk was making the coolant bleed past the gasket or something? I'm assuming the weep hole is designed to bleed pressure off, or something like that? Also the when I drained the coolant from the radiator it looked nice a clean, so I just reused it. I plan to do a flush at around 60k, and I think I'll be installing a coolant filter as soon as the funds allow it.

After I got the new pump on and the coolant back in, I fired the truck up and didn’t get any leaks. I took it for a drive this evening and everything acted fine.

On a side note, when I drained the radiator before I changed the pump, I removed the intake heater core hose to allow the block to breathe. I got 4.5 gal. (including the 1 jug of coolant that was supposed to be in the overflow bottle), out of the radiator and it still had coolant in it after that. When I removed the water pump only a small splash of antifreeze came out, maybe a couple of ounces, so I know it drain the block. When I refilled the radiator, I left the intake heater core hose off to bleed the block again and I knew it was successful since coolant started to run out of the pipe that the hose connects too once I started to get to the top of the radiator with the coolant level. The truck took all 4.5 gals back in without a problem. Just thought I’d mention that since I’ve read a lot of “coolant flush” procedures lately and this is a good option for bleeding the block to get the most coolant in and out.

 

Is that on a 06? How many miles on it?

 

Yeah, only 50k.

 

Looks like rust from the iron body of the WP. It's probably been leaking for a long long time.

 

Common problem, common pictures, you had a bad pump. Napa has decent pumps for a decent price, others have compared a few of the pumps from several places, and they all look almost the same. Go in confidence that you have taken care of the issue.

 

How meny miles?

 

50k

 

Wow... guess this is one of the reasons I put a coolant filter in.

 

Bingo

 

Yeah... your filter would travel back through time to miraculously change the mfg. process to somehow procuce a better quality pump. The filter obviously would have absolutely no effect on cause.

 

May not have kept the pump from failing, but it sure would have kept the CRAP from settling in the block!

 

If you guys would stop filling your radiator from the bass pond you would not have that problem.

 

^^^^^Sounds like the voice of experience here^^^^^

 

So what happened to... " No its not necessary" when nickbeek asked you if a coolant filter was necessary. No it's not necessary, unless I am arguing with Fishguy 50, then it becomes a matter of life and death!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Ok...take a deep breath and back away from the keyboard....it is only the internet bud. If you don't want a coolant filter by golly you don't have to add one. Some people like to filter everything *cough me cough* some don't...whatever floats your boat.