Let me start by saying it wasn't a heart attack but a sh_t hemorage. I heard a squeeling grinding noise last week while taking a cruse to town. I quickly shut down the new enging and checked it out. Upon restart it was a sick high pitch metal to metal squeel and garbage disposal grinding noise. Then it stopped!!!
All was well oil press, temp etc. So I finished my drive and came home.

Today I took it out for a quick speed run which I video taped and will post later .
Then 2 seconds after I shut the video camera off squeel, grind and the engine came to a stop. This is on a freshly rebuild $3k or better with only 300mi if that. First thing I think is I spun a bearing, Timing chain came off and lunched, burned a hole in a piston, broke a crank, lifter jammed .........
I look under the car and see a small drip coming off the remote water pump. AH, I prayed, being sunday of course, I hope it's the water pump. I quickly unbolt and loosen the belt, sure as sh-t the pump is seized. WooHoo, happy day.

So now I just have to find out what pump Rod Simpson used back in the 90's.
Here are pictures of the failed impeller and chewed up housing. Note the two impeller blades in the bottom of the first pict. one was jammed into the outlet pipe, hard.

BTW what is your best guess that would cause this??


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OMG I thought you were joking until I realized you had a v-8. ~duh~

I seen around the board many v8 guys had fail remote water pumps.... dont know what caused it.

There are some that are running remote electric water pumps.... Maybe an alternative.

As for me I preferred to make the hole in the firewall and stick with the stock like water pump.

Yeah, my heart would have stopped as well! When I think of what it could have been...$$$$$.
Renegade

$335 WATER PUMP AND ASSEMBLY: Remote mounted water pump assembly mounts to the side of the engine and is belt driven from the harmonic balancer, effectively shortening the overall engine length by approximately 5". Features our Renegade custom, cast aluminum housing, utilizing an aluminum Chrysler style big block impeller. Includes adjustable billet mounting plate, pulley, and coolant fittings. The flow rate of this pump is comparable to many high performance Chevrolet pumps. (Replacement impeller for custom housing = $99.00)
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go to napa in p/a and they should be able to find you that. i think the pump is a marine water pump for the old chysler marine engines.



edit: i did a quick look and it looks like its a mopar big block pump impeller. you should be able to save the housing. the pumps are cheap $70.

Thanks Mark Thanks Troy,
I think I remember reading a Buick part # somewhere in my paperwork. Ill check A-1 in Sequim first, They seem to have everything I need, if not they can get it.

I'm leaning toward cavitation creating a " negavitive " pressure on the inlet of the pump, causing the impeller blades to "flex" when spun past the design. Like a piece of wire if you flex it too much it will eventually break.

could be! maybe get a marine bronze impeller.

It's cavitation problem as long as the water pump is higher than the water level
in the radiator it will cavitate.

They are Chrysler pumps. Otherwise known as the Lester 1519. They were fitted to '74 - '78 Chrysler 400 & 440 CI engines. The early one for A/C has 6 fins on the impeller. The motor home model has 8 fins on the impeller. They were all known as the "big bearing' pump.

The originals are cast iron. The aftermarket aluminum is made by GMB (Japan). There is another version now coming in that has a bit thicker casting that they refer to as the "high performance" pump. We were going to have a couple rebuilt for eBay.

There is also the Chryslet Marine which is a 1519M.

They are all the same height, just different in the diameter and number of fins on the impeller and will all interchange.

Our water pump expert (30 years rebuilding) says that it is odd the impeller came apart. He feels that something got into the system .. rock, nut bolt, whatever becuase the bearing still looks solid from the image. If the bearing went, the impeller would have gouged the back housing.

Anyway ... that's the story.

Outsch!

Hard water?