How Does This Happen

[tacker]

How the hell do you snap the front of a water pump clean off!

I now have two parts as it did just explode, so badly i could pull the whole front with the fan attached off the car with my hand???

[Simon-S14]

the fan belt has prob been way too tight for a while and has stressed the bearing, the pump is only alloy... so yeah while its not common it can happen. exp on a stock one thats done 100,000 kms with an over tightened belt

[tacker]

Hmm pump was only 60 kms old and belt was not all that tight, anyway chaly this one up to experience.

[Blitz]

Well, there is something I haven't seen before!

No other damage as a result tacker?

[GeeTR]

Farrk me, thats incredible!! Theres a fair deal of webbed alloy meat in the snout.

Condolences

M

[dontfeelcold]

who put it in?

[tacker]

yer would you believe i was just sitting at the control light waiting for it to go green to start track session and bang! Engine was only idling thank F#$5.

Radiator got a bit of a touch up from the fan and engine got a bit hot but not to bad would hate to think what would have happened at 8000 rpm?

I put it in and before you say it i have been working on engines for the last 22 years and this is a simple task. Try putting an oil pump or an oil cooling nozzle into a Cummins KTA 50G3 which are both the definition of bloody near impossible.

The pump had already done some track time with no problem then bang

Edited March 30, 2007 by tacker

[dontfeelcold]

Who removed it from the previous vehicle?

[GeeTR]

Big Ass diesels huh? Maybe you accidentally used the same torque’ing figures?

Just kidding - You were all thinking it

M

[STATUS]

Its either an indian cheapy with casting issues (look for flaws, i cant see any in the pic though) or the belts were to tight. I have seen this happen to those copy SR20 sumps getting around small tap on a ripple strip and they literally fall off.

Edited March 30, 2007 by URAS

[tacker]

yer big old smelly, nasty deisels. I am sure belt was not to tight still i guess that would be a reason for this happening but how tight must it have been to break that amount of cast alloy. And would that be possible with 1 little tensioning bolt.

Pump was brand new when i put in on and i put the few kms on it without any issue, so it was never removed from any other engine. Thinking a N1 will now be put on as getting sick of removing cam belt etc to put pump in place only changed the last one as i put new cam belt on and thought i better do the right thing

Edited March 30, 2007 by tacker

[SK1LNE]

did the bearing sieze? can you still turn it?

[tacker]

smooth as a baby bum lol!

I must have done the belt too tight guess you live and learn.

[CEF11E]

there looks to be a fault in that casting

Have a look a the left hand side between the 2 ribs. it looks like it is about 2 mm thick.

was it a genuine pump?

[Simon-S14]

maybe its been dropped somewhere along the line prior to you installing it?

[Fanta R33GTR]

The water pump in my GTR did exactly the same thing. The belt was just a little too tight and after a few weeks when I let her rip, it snapped and the pump was held on by only a small piece of metal.

Like other have said,

If it's not that then it's just a cheap pump perhaps with bad manufactering...

[tacker]

yer willing to believe to be ham fisted me that caused it.

N1 water pump on the way. just got to remove the balancer, cam belt etc etc

[eSKiMo]

there looks to be a fault in that casting

Have a look a the left hand side between the 2 ribs. it looks like it is about 2 mm thick.

imagine how many pumps came out of the same cast!

oh oh!!

[taynewguy]

Sounds like you got away with it ok though.

This happened to me a while back in my r33 - threw the fan into the radiator at about 5000rpm.

The fan had a few chunks missing from the blades and the radiator was cactus!

We put it down to a fault/hairline crack in the water pump itself, as the belts were at correct tension.

[R31 POWER]

I'd be checking the clutch fan to see if it's seized.