Water pump leaking @ outlet?

stangGT97

New Member
Dec 22, 2004
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Boston area, MA
Hey all,

I recently discovered a coolant leak beneath the intake manifold. When I did my manifold install, I fabbed up a coolant pipe because I couldn't get the correct Ford part in time. So I'm thinking that either this pipe has started to leak @ the joints, or the water pump O-ring was eaten away by the glycol and the coolant is leaking there. As far as I can tell, the leak isn't horrible but it's definitely present... I'm currently trying to slow it down w/ a little radiator sealant additive but this is only a bandaid for the real problem.

So my question is - can the water pump and outlet pipe (the one that goes under the manifold) be replaced w/o removing the manifold first? Intuition tells me that if I remove the alternator and pull the water pump that I should be able to wiggle the fabbed coolant runner out of the engine, but I'm just not sure. I really don't want to remove the manifold, I have no leaks from it, perfect vacuum and if I can avoid that labor I will be very happy. My plan is to replace the water pump w/ one for a 1999 GT (so it has the correct nipple and pulley), replace the o-ring, and install the Ford coolant pipe. Thanks in advance :SNSign:
 
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COramprat said:
I'm not sure it can be done...it is pretty tight in there and you may not get a good seal from the nipple to the pipe. Wouldn' hurt to try though.

thats what I figured. I just picked up a set of PI intake gaskets, WP nipple/o-ring and the coolant tube. Looks like I'll be ripping the intake off again :bang: :bang:

Lesson learned - do things right the first time.