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Best water pump brands these days and question

cletus141

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Reno, NV
What are the recommended brands for water pumps on the 4.0 these days? I have local access to Summit on top of Napa and O'Reilly. Put slight upgrade radiator in in November. Don't mind minor upgrades, but don't need anything crazy; motor is stock. Searches only turned up years old posts, and we know how often some parts change quality.

1991 started leaking last night. Figured it was just a leak, not big, and I just made sure it was topped off. Well, the temp was holding fine on the way home from work. I could hear a bearing type noise that made me wanna check my oil (she does have 200k). Well, just as I'm pulling into O'Reilly to get oil and coolant, I lose power steering and the temp spikes. Then it puked a lot. Belt was around the fan. Temp just hit 210, so I think I saved it. The water pump pulley was loose but the bolts weren't. I figure that's how I lost the belt and the pump is gone.

When I installed the radiator, I installed a new belt and tensioned it using the twist method, which I found out was only like 100 lbs or whatever when I got my Krikit a few days later. I've read 180-200 with a Krikit for new belts. Since old belts are supposed to be 140-160, but it was under a week of use when I tightened it up, I set it to 170. Maybe too much.

Does the water pump puke like that when it fails?
 
There's a weep hole at the 6 o'clock position just behind the pulley. Once coolant starts to leak out, coolant can also get into the bearing and start to trash it. Coolant can also get on the belt and cause it to slip.

Did you flush your system when you changed the radiator?
 
Why not just go OEM? Your last one lasted close to 200k.

I've got a '98 ticking at 198k miles, with the stock water pump. Engine runs cool, no leaks or squeaks. Based on that experience, I'm going to go OEM when it does come time to replace it.
 
New, never rebuilt. Genuine Jeep is my first choice, ACDdelco is my second choice.
 
I have Napa new waterpump on mine mostly because I work for them.otherwise oem
 
I'm really curious how many water pump manufacturers there are out there now. Motorcraft acdelco, gmb, O'Reilly store brand and a few others all come with the gasket in a bag taped to the inside box with the same instructions "how to install your new water pump". I seriously believe they're all made from the same recycled tuna cans overseas, but that's my opinion.

Next time around I might try one of the flowkooler pumps.
 
I have a NAPA pump.

Engine runs cold.

I have a suspicion the pump may be pushing too much water.

Anyone else get a NAPA recently and have the same issue?
 
I went with Mopar for my 98 three weeks ago because the price at dealership was reasonable, about $80 IIRC. Fan Clutch I went with local box store as it was less than $40 and dealership was 4x that.
 
I splurged for a Koolflow over 100000 miles ago. It worked great until recently. Replaced with another one. I also use hi flow thermostat. 90 Renix unaltered.

Key to keeping a pump running well is to use the "Klickit" tool for setting the belt tension. If you go too tight, it will overload the bearing.
 
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