My water pump curse

[Gasoholic]

I'm cursed I tell you!
A little history,
2010 LS3.
I really hate the looks of the stock GM pump. Wanted something that looked nicer.
Ordered one from Edelbrock. Looks nice but not the correct fit. Returned it and Edelbrock sent another pump that was supposedly correct fit. Closer but still not right. Edelbrock said need to change some pulleys. After messing around trying to come up with a system that would work I still had fitment problems. Edelbrock finally said, "our pumps are for hot rods", "not really intended to be direct fit replacement". Thanks Edelbrock, why didn't you say that to begin with?
Then I found one that was made by Holley. Looks nice. Not quite as nice as the Edelbrock, but nicer than than OE pump.
The Holley fit perfect. I was really happy with it. All my pulleys line up. The embossed "HOLLEY" across the front of the pump looks sweet. I'm a happy camper.
Well, not so fast.
After I got the car running I noticed once it cooled off there was a tiny orange spot on the front of the pump. Wiped it with my finger and smelled it, hmmm, antifreeze.
Wrote it of as just being residual from maybe I spilled some, or something.
Ran the car again, let set, few days later the orange spot was back.
"Hmmmm, thats strange".
Wiped it away and ran it again.
Turns out the theres either a crack in the casting, or the casting is porous. Bottom line the pump is leaking.
Well, wife wants to drive the car. I'm worried the pump could start to leak worse. Don't want her having any problems.
Soooooo, needed to get it fixed fast.
Went to the GM dealer and picked up a new butt ugly GM pump and installed it yesterday.
No leak. Wife is happy. But really disappointed that it looks so ugly.
Going to contact Holley and see if they will replace the one I got from them.
In the mean time I think I'm becoming an expert on all the different water pump set ups for LS engines.

[Synner]

Just lightly sand and paint the stock one, save yourself the heartburn. Life is too short.

[UBB]

do you spend an inordinate amount of time with your hood open? Seems like a lot of time and effort for a water pump.

[Gasoholic]

It is possible I stare at the motor too much. But that is an ugly pump. I'm tellin ya!

[Olddudesrule]

Morale of the story,....learn to love unattractive yet fully functional parts.

[bmbbl be]

had mine polished,,, looks great

[StingrayblueSS]

I've never looked at my water pump

[LimaCharlie]

I've always thought the entire LS engine looked ugly. However.....it's functional, lightweight, compact, and reliable. Enough said.

[christianchevell]

Painting or replacing pulleys with billet pieces is a much better option for improving the looks , you can carouse the clean up the engine bay thread in the engines section with its ideas from Moreno Motorsports I believe. Good Luck.



The paint on my pulleys you see here and the intake is simple metallic grill paint from home depot good to 600 degrees....Easy cheap dress up, hacked the crap out of some coil cover made to work in this pick they were like $100 online. Not much universal stuff fits a Camaro engine bay or our plumbing with out being spendy $$$ for real good Like American car craft good...LOL If you have fine taste....

Sure many dress up the valve covers and move coils or improve their mounts and redress ugly plumbing but our fire wall makes Tunnel rams and other things a consideration from firewall interference which was a case with the Coil covers and I shortened them and had to cut many reliefs for the plumbing and well they are what they are.

[Gasoholic]

Looks good Christian,

I didn't do coil covers. Just cleaned them up.
I did find a set of billet idler and tensioner pulleys.