Cast Iron vs Aluminum Water Pumps - Forums - GrandMarq.NET

Is a cast iron water pump preferable over an aluminum one? I know that the tow package cars came with the cast iron one but what was the reason for this?

My water pump needs to come off due to a leak around one of the ports. I read that the cast iron pump uses an extra bolt around each port. I’m considering switching to a cast pump because of this. Is that the only functional difference between the pumps?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I had an old cast iron one laying in the scrap pile so I measured the impeller. Six blades, diameter 3 7/8". This was an original never remanufactured part. Now I need one of you to crack open an aluminum one so that my mind can be at rest.







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I went through a bunch of them a while back, whats been on the car for years now is just a common off the shelf unit from Advance (or Autozone, I don't 100% remember). I know one of them was a reman Cardone, that one fucked off in about miles, puking water out of the seals. One popped the back plate gasket, blew all the coolant out, and overheated the engine. Another one had bearing problems, wasn't leaking but it sounded like a cat stuck in the fan. I think I did 4 pumps in about 25k miles on just my car. Whatever is on there now has actually been re-installed a couple of times now. Bless you and your patience man.
I'm trying to avoid that experience with all I have.
As it seems, nobody has a pump preference with a part number and manufacturer anywhere online that is ideal for our cars.
I'm going to call the Ford dealer and see what they'd give me just for kicks. Back in the late '80s, I stripped two junk yard F-150s of everything AC related to add AC to my non AC F-150 4x4 with 351m. It ran hot afterwards, so I put in a HD 400 F-350 radiator, it still heated. Then I discovered Flow-Kooler thermostats and water pump. I saw they offered an upgraded water pump, and they offered a up grade kit. I ordered just the up grade kit and T-stat. The upgrade kit was a 4" stainless steel disc and six 1/8" pop rivets. I had a new water pump already. The disc attaches via the six rivets and prevents coolant from spilling off the vanes. I used a picture from above to illustrate. Mine is still in use on that water pump, but would be easy to transfer to another once the rivets are drilled out, then just use new pop rivets. Truck never ran hot with AC on again.

If using a 351m or 400, they take a thermostat with a restrictor "hat" that closes off the bypass hole in the block off increasingly as the thermostat opens. If a regular type thermostat is used, coolant is just bypassing the radiator uncooled and temperatures just keep rising. Attached Files I'll look through my receipts to see what brand pump that I got for the 351W; I know that they are different from the 8.2 deck blocks; but maybe that brand makes pumps for them. Though, I just sent my Dad out to get M8 x 1.00 bolts because the water pump pulley flange doesn't accept the stock pulley bolts. Hope this is not an indicator of how it runs :-/ FORD garage and I had a nice discussion about owner serviced vehicles versus dealership serviced vehicles. Guy said nobody has called them about ANYTHING prior to in at least ten years. So anyway..
Proper P/N for my '86 is E6AZ B
Obsolete and no cross reference.
He recommended Napa, as they source parts for the dealership owners collection of 50's and 60's F series trucks there with no issue.

I'm aware of the flow-Kooler mod and I might look into that. Good idea.

Hey Guys,

I have been tasked with replacing the damaged impellers of a group of water/slurry pumps that are used in the mining industry. They do see a fair bit of nasty fluids including sea water.

The impellers are currently cast iron, and the failure mode is the impeller blades wear away. I was thinking a replacement of steel fully machined, however I have little experience in material selection, particularly when it comes to corrosion.

What am I overlooking here?

Stainless is not an option unfortunately.

cheers,

Joel Why were they cast - is it a shape that will be difficult/costly to machine? (Though with modern multi axis machines that's a less common issue.) Would your volumes now preclude casting as a cost effective solution?

What finish was used originally, and are there any new surface treatments that might be better?

Not quite the same requirement but take a look at thread330- for ideas.

Posting guidelines faq731-376 (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq-​ Often they use Ni-Resist for cast pump impellers. This is a high Ni cast iron that has very good corrosion resistance and fair wear resistance.

What is the original producer offering you? If they are worn then you can't reverse engineer the blade shape.

Fabricated impellers are usually difficult. Even if you can get the geometry correct they tend to have issues with fatigue at welds.

You should not use a plain steel. If you really want better life then you need to look at alloys like 3CR12 or other straight Cr stainless grades.

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Plymouth Tube is definitely not the hot setup.

You need to do some industrial archaeology. Dig through the purchase records of the company until you find what material was originally specified for the pumps, and whatever was specified for the previous set of impellers.
You will probably find that the extant impellers are not generic 'cast iron', but a high tech abrasion resistant alloy that costs even more than stainless steel.

Whatever it is, work from there.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA Nagle Pumps had a 28% Chrome hard iron impeller material that they used for slurry and mining pumps. Pretty doggoned tough stuff. I remember one nationally recognized pump repair company at a loss of what to do with it because they had never seen a CI impeller that hard.

rmw