Lubricate Water Pump Seals?

[tbryanh]

BACKGROUND
1989 E350 7.3L C6
This van leaks a tiny bit of coolant once in a while as it sits in the driveway. Coolant is probably leaking from the water pump, but leak has not been pinpointed yet.

I've owned this van about a year. It sits in the driveway most of the time, but is taken out on 100-mile drives about twice a month. It has about 250,000 miles on the original engine.I bought it from the original owner who used it for his business. It may have not been used much for a couple of years before I bought it. I do not have a history of maintenance on the van.

1986 E350 6.9L C6
This van leaks alot of coolant once in a while. Coolant is probably leaking from the water pump, but leak has not been pinpointed yet.

I've owned this van about two years. It is driven about 100 to 300 miles per week. It has about 20,000 to 30,000 miles on a new engine. I bought it from the original owner who used it as a recreational vehicle and payed the dealer to install a new engine about 12 years ago. It was probably not driven much for about 10 years before I bought it. I do not have a history of maintenance on the van.

QUESTIONS

Because coolant leaks intermittently, it seems the water pump seals might be the problem.

Other than changing the water pumps, what might be a remedy?

1. Add water pump lubricant to the coolant?
1.a. Will the lubricant adversely affect the SCA additive?

2. Flush and cleaning the coolant system with a backflush chemical, and then add water pump lubricant to the coolant?

3. Add a coolant filter to the cooling system after doing the the things mentioned in "2"?

 

[riotwarrior]

DON"T flush unless you are fully prepared to replace pump.

If the seals are weaping now, any flushing could remove built up SCHMEG as I call it and cause a major malfunction. This is what happened to me if you look at my WP replacement thread in the tech section.

I started with doing flushing of system...and ended up with failure of RAD and WP as I cleaned it out TOO GOOD!

JM2CW on that.

Water pump lube may help, I'd be more inclined to prepare for a replacement and get one from FORD not a cheapnese/cheapexico craptasticreman

again
JM2CW

Al

 

[chris142]

Water pumps have had sealed bearings for 60 years.adding a lube wont get you any extra life. If its leaking it needs to be replaced before it leaves you stranded or comes apart and puts the fan into the radiator.

 

[tbryanh]

Thanks for the good writeup on the water pump changeout. I never knew how to analyze and prep the replacement pump. Now I do.

The Aviation Form A Gasket looks interesting. I've always used Permatex 2 non hardening sealer, but I'll check into the aviation stuff.

Good to know that some of the bolts must be sealed to preven oil leaking. Never heard of that before. Is the white sealant plumbing pipe dope?

I'll certainly refer to your writeup if I need to change my pumps.

Yeah. I am a little scared to flush the coolant system. Maybe a coolant filter would clean things up.