Hey all. My water pump (which might be the original 30+years old) recently started leaking. Ordered a new ACDelco part# 252-152 and it looks way beefier than the original, with the coolant passages going way deeper into a much thicker housing.

Left New / Right original:



Placing the pulley on, it looks like the thicker casting means that the pulley now interferes with the 'ribs':



Anyone run into this before? Were the deeper passages a later year thing? The car is a 1987.

Thanks
-Joel

 

That looks to be the correct AC Delco part number and the water pumps look similar.

You would think by now that these OEM parts manufacturers would get it straight. Here's the Mazda p/n for S4 WP: N326-15-100C. I would send that pump back and demand a refund, and look for a different source. Here are a few that I came up with:

https://www.atkinsrotary.com/store/8...6-15-100C.html
https://www.tascaparts.com/oem-parts...ver-n32615100c
https://www.mazda-parts.com/oem-part...ver-n32615100c

Google the p/n and you might find a dealer or two closer to your location.

I've got nearly 370k miles on my original S5 WP and have never had a problem with it (knock on wood). I'm curious as to where was your WP was leaking? Was it hrough the weep hole?

 

Not exactly sure where it was leaking - can't really see the weep hole when the pulley is on. I just had a trail of coolant down the front of the engine, and a puddle on the ground below.

Took a look at rock auto, and all 6 brands of pumps they list appear to have the thicker casting. Maybe i'll just grind down the ribs a bit and run it....

 

Are you sure the leak is from the WP and not the radiator?

 

Rad leak wouldn't trickle down the front of the engine though

 

i had a car with that pump in it, and i ground down the ribs enough to clear the pulley.

 

got it installed. I did the same thing, ground down the ribs till it cleared. that's a pretty silly problem to have....

 

I probably should have changed the housing-to-motor gasket as well.... hopefully that doesn't leak now

 

I just Came across this issue. Thank you for posting this.

 

I went to a gilmer drive setup recently and had to grind much much more off of those ridges for the pulley to fit. Forgot to re-paint it after and it looks gross now.... gotta fix that.