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My water pump literally pulled a grenade on me last night on the highway. I attempted to replace the pump today (thanks for the great writeup, Totallyrad), but there isn't much of the water pump left:
Fragged water pump.
So, now I'm trying to figure out where all of those pieces went. If I understand the coolant flow correctly, the coolant comes into the side of the pump from the radiator, and then into the engine block. All I can feel is a tiny hole for the coolant to exit the pump. I can't imagine that the impeller made it's way back down into the radiator, but I'm not sure where else it might have went. Seems like all of the larger pieces would have been caught on the spring in the intake hose anyway.
Any of you diesel wizards have a take on what to do next, or where/how to check and retrieve the impeller?
Last edited by Hopper; 06-16-2015 at 11:29 AM.
Reason: Added link
I've got a pretty good idea now, that the fragments from the impeller are up into the engine block. I take it that my only recourse is to have someone pull the engine and conduct a full tear down and rebuild to find all the pieces. If someone has a better thought, I'd appreciate any advice.
If it comes to that, I don't have the resources to do it myself anymore. Do you think I could put the new pump on, fill the coolant system and drive 5 miles to get the truck to the dealer?
I'm not real sure what could have happened but what about a long flexible something with a magnet? Kind of "Fish" around in there? Is that even possible?
I doubt it. I tried to fish some lady-fingers into the volute and hit 2 90 degree turns. I'm just not sure what the flow path looks like or if it opens up, and the flexible tip just wouldn't take that turn; I can get my pinky finger in there, but only to the first knuckle. I managed to fish a single perpendicular fin out of the discharge channel going to the volute:
Recovered fin tip perpendicular to pump flange.
What I'm amazed by is how small the pieces must have broken into to completely disappear the way they did. I would have expected a lot of it to be caught in the pump housing and fall out when I pulled the pump. So far, I have 4 more blades and 4 fin tips to recover, at least.
Last edited by Hopper; 06-16-2015 at 03:49 PM.
Reason: clarification
and get a fish rod, "not fishing rod" and as u back flush as mentioned above, jiggle the rod around inside the block, hopefully it will dislodge the missing pieces, good luck;
you need to pull the oil cooler I have seen this happen before and that's where the pieces will be. You don't want to leave broken piece in there chance of getting into water pump and seizing the pump.
BigIron70: I'm glad someone has seen this before. Google turned up nothing, except for plastic impeller water pumps coming apart. I'll investigate the oil cooler today. I've seen a few different coolant flow diagrams for Cummins engines, but none for my model. So this gives me a great place to start if the cooler is right behind the water pump. Anything I need to know about taking the cooler out? I don't have a service manual.
gcssr: I have fish tape, as an electrician. But it won't go in around the water pump volute without some modifications to the engine block. To quote Hot Shots, "In order to prevent damage to the eye socket, they're going to have to go in through the anus. Ain't no man taking that route through me." Or my Cummins, it seems.
Steve-l: I wanted to do that anyway to flush out any non-metallic pieces of the bearing that may be floating around. Have you had to do this? What did you use to make an adapter?
Pulled the oil cooler, and sure enough, all of the missing pieces of the impeller were there. Just some debris from the bering were missing. Took an ispection mirror and a flashlight and inspected what i could of the water jacket, and all looked clean, no debris that i could see. I pulled the thermostat and backflushed with the cooler out, no adaptor needed - just stuck the garden hose in the top and turned it on. I put it all together, but forgot to pick up a new oil filter. I'll grab one today, and start a cooling system flush.
Glad to hear you found all the pieces. Make sure you use a coolant funnel and remove plug in top of head when you fill cooling system. Failure to do that can lead to overheating.
Yessir. I have at least 177k miles. (Not sure on the exact mileage because I had to send my ABS module out for a rebuild. Odo doesn't work with that missing.)
Lost my first fuel pump about a thousand miles ago, followed closely by a rim and rear studs (mechanic didn't torque the lug nuts). Changed the tensioner pulley last Sunday, and now the water pump yesterday. Probably time for things to want to be replaced on the truck.
Other than the last thousand miles, only other replacements I had were a new overdive unit on the tranny that cracked open and leaked fluid all over the place, a fan clutch short, and three sets of ball joints in the last 20k miles. I got the new steering setup recall with my first ball-joint job, and it had a broken joint on the drag link socket by the second set of ball joints (not covered under warranty and before the second recall was issued). I need a fourth set of ball joints already, but I can't trust any of the clowns around NoVA that call themselves mechanics to do the job anymore.
Pretty much everything else is OEM including the suspension, surprisingly. It's about time she started to nickle and dime me. Power steering pump has started to leak, so that will be my next project.
Glad to hear you found all the pieces. Make sure you use a coolant funnel and remove plug in top of head when you fill cooling system. Failure to do that can lead to overheating.
I'm not sure about the plug in the top of the head. Did a Google search and forum search, and couldn't find anything that actually pointed to one. I followed AH64ID's writeup. Only difference was I pulled the T-Stat when filling the system up for the flushing procedure and the final fill to vent the air out of the block. Also, since I never see my coolant temperature fluctuate once I hit 205 on the dash gauge, I never know when I get to the 4th or 5th heating cycle. The t-stat will open and temps will drop to about 195 and stay steady state. So I romped the truck up and down several steep hills for 10 minutes and figured that would work the system well enough.
you need to pull the oil cooler I have seen this happen before and that's where the pieces will be. You don't want to leave broken piece in there chance of getting into water pump and seizing the pump.
Would back flushing the cooler work instead of a total pull?
06-16-2015, 10:57 AM
