Anyone selling cast impeller water pumps now?

[wolf_walker]

I see a lot of stamped and a few plastic at the usual places.  Graf, Gebu, no cast steel.

The effing bearing is worn on my 6K mile complete Gebu unit.
And no the belt wasn't overly tight.  Not happy.

[rabbitman]

I see a lot of stamped and a few plastic at the usual places.  Graf, Gebu, no cast steel.

The effing bearing is worn on my 6K mile complete Gebu unit.
And no the belt wasn't overly tight.  Not happy.

That makes me sad, I just bought a cast Gebu for a spare.......... :'(

Actually, just looked up what I bought here, http://www.partsgeek.com/catalog/1982/volkswagen/rabbit/cooling_system/water_pump.html
and I guess it's a Geba instead of Gebu........ and it's cast........

That place used to sell bosch water pumps for like $22 and as soon as I went to order they went out of stock

[maxfax]

Believe it or not, Prothe...   Bought one a year ago..  Cast impeller, decently machined, and of course made in China.. Then again the new water pumps from Napa and Carquest are too.. Now whether the quality is consistent would be the big question, the one I;ve been running has done well...

[wolf_walker]

Hmm.
Interestingly depending on where you read, the plastic impeller might be sort of a red hearing.  BMW stock plastic one's are well thought of, the cast impeller ones they theorize weigh on the bearing, which is of questionable quality on the after market(metal) impeller pumps.  Go figure.

I found a Graf that looks metal compared to the others.  A given supplier makes more than one pump too seems like, one has a graf that is obviously stamped, this one is either plastic or cast, and I don't see the sleeve inside the plastic ones seem to have.
We'll see I guess, I change pumps often anyway, plastic probly be fine. 

[maxfax]

It's a gamble short and sweet...   I've had mixed luck with plastic impellers..  They would be less load on the bearing, and the engine overall, but when the impeller breaks and slips on the shaft or flys appart you're still in the same boat.. 

We used to have a Sable with the Mazda DOHC engine as a shop car..   245K miles and never a water pump bearing or seal failure..  But 4 water pumps replaced due to the impeller breaking.. 

In a perfect world the cast steel impeller and quality bearings would be the ticket..   Seems this rarely happens anymore though..

[the caveman]

I used to make fun of american cars because of their plastic impellers, until they turned up in VW's . One of the reasons i quit VW, I figured if they were going to start really cheapening out on parts then the rest of the parts would follow suit. That's why i say the last good year for VW was 1998

[theman53]

I used to make fun of american cars because of their plastic impellers, until they turned up in VW's . One of the reasons i quit VW, I figured if they were going to start really cheapening out on parts then the rest of the parts would follow suit. That's why i say the last good year for VW was 1998

1992 FTW

[Dakotakid]

Believe it or not....all the pumps I have purchased at O'Reilly's have had cast impellers and I have not had a failure yet among any of them. Plus, I get lifetime warranty....which I have never had to use.

[wolf_walker]

I pulled a totally mangled, but still round and in one piece, plastic impeller waterpump out of a Boxster S the other day, 80K on it.
Will see what they send me tomorrow, it was cheap enough.

[fatmobile]

I wonder how hard,..
 and spendy
 it is to press them apart, replace the bearings and seals,
 then press them back together.

[wolf_walker]

More trouble than it's worth on a pump I'll never run more than 40K miles, personally.
Pumps are cheap, annoying as the job is it's really not hard compared to a lot of car junk I
do pretty regular.  (see Boxster comment above).

So my $20 Graf is a stamped impeller, but it does look like a much better
designed stamping than the others I've seen photos of, looks like it has larger
fins with a better curve to them and will fill up the space in the housing more.  Will post pic later. 
I'm gonna run it, my pickup
runs on the cool side with a new t-stat as it is half the time.

[wolf_walker]

Further for the record, my whole assembly Gebu pump that the bearing died early in was a cast steel impeller.
Will report on cooling with the stamped steel one later.

[wolf_walker]

Final update.  The contoured stamped impeller Graf pump seems fine, or better, than the cast impeller one.
My op temp on the road is one full bar lower than previously, and it's also steady now for a longer period.
As in, it takes longer sitting still at idle for the gauge to read higher. 
Also the vent temp is noticeably up.  Was good and warm before, but it's what I remember
them as roll down the windows in the winter hot now.
Seems to me to indicate it flows more.  Hotter heat, lower op temp. 
I didn't touch the stock German t-stat I put in 6K ago or so.
Take it for what it's worth, I'll be using one of these in the Rabbit in a few months
when I finally put it together I think.
And the ABA 2L metal water pump gasket is great btw.

[vixentd]

same results on my aaz.  The stamped one is better.

[Dakotakid]

Resurrecting this because I have now gotten corned with an O'Reilly pump. It appeared to be a cast iron impellar when I quickly looked in the box before leaving the store. It ain't. It is a plastic impellar and it immediately rubbed on the back hemisphere of the pump (couldn't hardly turn the shaft after assembly). So, I took it out and it will go back to O'Reilly's tomorrow. Maybe I will stuff the box with some brown rice and a couple of fish heads.......I wonder if they will give back my daaamn money.