Water Pump
I really wanna get this figured out before I put a new opti in.
The mechanical WP is a good piece, I use remanufactured ones from Advance Auto.
IMO electrics are WAY overutilized, yes they make the car faster at the strip but they also suddenly and completely fail as opposed to the slight weep you found with the mechanical. If looking to gety every last .1 out of it at the strip go ahead and consider an electric understanding it frees up power by moving LESS water. If the car is a driver and reliability is greater concern than ET go mechanical.
The GM heads while they have a LOT of good going for them are pretty fragile when it comes to overheating, it can permanently soften them and they wont hold a head gasket after.
I have two reasons why I went with electric.
(1) is because the drive gear got stripped. This is the main gear that drives
the water pump - it is coupled to the water pump's driven gear via a coupler.
(and it, itself, is driven off the cam gear). If I were to decide to replace the
drive gear, it would have meant opening up the front timing cover. And I'll
be rebuilding the engine soon.
(2) For the HP boost. All the "little HP boost" items add up.
The pump that I have has an estimated lifetime of 2500 hours. In order to
combat the "sudden death and not knowing it happened", i've wired in with
the pump a relay that trips a buzzer inside the car, so if the pump decides
it's going to take a trip South, I'll know immediately. But by my estimation,
however, I shall have the engine out, rebuilt, and re-installed
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1) get a mechanical water pump cheap and buy an opti and just swap out both
or
2) get a Meziere and leave that opti in now and if it continues to misfire or gets worse swap in a new opti in a few months when I have some extra $$
what do you guys think I should go with?
Also make sure the "local" pump your looking at is in good shape. Look at the weep hole for signs of rust or coolant to make sure you don't end up with the same problem by buying a bad pump.


