Slow coolant leak

[lotzagoodstuff]

So I noticed a little coolant right under the center of the truck today. I gut under and investigated, and the oil pan had a slight residue of coolant, looks like it's coming off the harmonic balancer. Had a bunch of work to do and no time to really look for where it was coming from, but I'm going to assume for now it's the water pump.

Assuming I will confirm that it needs a water pump, anybody have any thoughts on the best water pump for a 7.3 IDI, and any thoughts on how involved a job swapping a pump is? I have been wanting to do an electric fan conversion, so I'm guessing this might be the time to collect the parts and do everything all at once.

As always, thanks for your help/input.

R. J.

 

[rhkcommander]

might check the oil cooler too, same location and a slow drip could travel a bit.

 

[gatorman21218]

A water pump is not that hard to replace. I would only recommend Genuine Motorcraft Parts for this. It ran me around 100 bucks. Might as well get a new t-stat from ford while your at it. I removed the vacuum pump, alternator and the fuel filter bracket. I also loosened the p/s pump bracket. I cant remember if this is necessary for just the water pump b/c I did the valve cover gaskets at the same time. You will need a fan clutch wrench (got mine from KD tools, 48mm???) and a good strap/chain wrench to hold the pulley. Scrape the old gasket off very thoroughly. Installation of the new water pump is pretty much straight forward except the top two pump bolts come with the Motorcraft pump and must be coated with rtv. There is some concern about the bolt length and the longer bolts hitting the timing gears, but if you stick with the motorcraft you should not have any problems. Personally I would stick with a fan clutch. If theres any doubt with its abillity to lock up then I would just replace it. I would recommend a little blue loctite on the fan clutch to keep that sucker on there and not spinning through your radiator. Oh and might as well replace the hoses while your at it.

 

[91/2 7.3idi]

i have a thread about this going on right now. i just ordered a pump and t stat from my local ford dealer ship for 95 for the pump and 30 for the t stat.

 

[gatorman21218]

theres a t-stat gasket you need to get too.

 

[lotzagoodstuff]

Just and FYI: I was able to remove my clutch fan by using a 2" racheting tie strap with a crow bar (couldn't find a chain wrench to buy or rent), although I've got to say I don't think it was that tight although there was thread locker present on the threads. I had a 1 7/8 crows foot with a big breaker bar so I might have had more pressure on it than I thought, but it definitely didn't feel like 165 ft/lbs.

I put everything back together without the fan present and I am going to watch it closely to see if I can verify the coolant leak now that there's no giant spinning clutch fan in the way, and then I think I'm going to pull the shroud off and make myself a dual electric fan set up as I've wanted to go this route for some time (twin Lincoln Mark IIIVs, I think they move the most air of any factory fan I've seen).

Stay tuned, thanks to all for the pointers on getting the clutch fan off.