Hey thermo great write up. I'm actually going to be doing this job this morning. I have an 04 x-type which is pretty sentimental because I was left to my byu my grandmother who passed away several years back. I first was scared to work on it but recently done a few jobs on it which have given me some confidence. But anyways I bought a new water pump with lifetime warranty from AutoZone and it came with its own gasket kinda like paper. I was wondering if I should use these by themself or should I add some sort of gasket maker or anything with it. Your them man on here so figured I'd ask thanks

 

Hey thermo great write up. I'm actually going to be doing this job this morning. I have an 04 x-type which is pretty sentimental because I was left to my byu my grandmother who passed away several years back. I first was scared to work on it but recently done a few jobs on it which have given me some confidence. But anyways I bought a new water pump with lifetime warranty from AutoZone and it came with its own gasket kinda like paper. I was wondering if I should use these by themself or should I add some sort of gasket maker or anything with it. Your them man on here so figured I'd ask thanks

 

RSmithJr89, you can use the paper gasket, but use it more as a means to hold the gasket maker in place. I have always used "Permatex" gasket maker and never had any issues. Simply figure out which side goes where on the water pump, then find the side that goes towards the pump. Apply gasket maker to that side and then apply to the water pump. With the gasket now attached to the water pump, apply a little more to the motor side. At this point, you are ready to start re-installing. This makes it so you don't have to try holding the gasket and attempting to line it up with the motor and the pump all at the same time.

Something else that you can think about is I mentioned that there is a special "burping" procedure. Over the years, we have found that you can also simply fill the system as much as you can with a 50/50 mix of water/coolant and then run the car to get it up to temp. Let it run a few more minutes, making sure that you rev the engine a little bit to help force the air out. Once you have worked most of the air out, turn off the engine and let it cool (DO NOT!!!!!! install the coolant bottle cap, simply rest it on top to prevent dirt from getting inside the overflow bottle). Once the engine is cool/cold, top off the overflow bottle and then install the cap. May need to top up the overflow bottle one more time, but normally if you fill it to high in the band, you will be good. The big thing is letting the bottle not form a seal initially. People have found that this will crack the overflow bottle plus it may leave the coolant system at a slight vacuum and this will actually make it easier for the system to overheat as the water will boil more easily. The system is designed to run at a slight pressure.

 

RSmithJr89, one other thing. I know it might sound trivial, but watch what water you put into the coolant system. This is assuming that you are buying the concentrate and then mixing 50/50 with water. If you go to the grocery store, you will find 3 kinds of water: filtered, spring, and distilled. Spring water is pretty much the same stuff that you get out of the tap of your house (except it supposedly came from a mountain spring). then you have filtered water. All this means is they took tap water and ran it through some filters to remove the "bad stuff". Granted, no where will they say how much that they left behind (which there is stuff left behind). Then you finally have distilled water. This should have no impurities in the water at all and is what you want mix with the concentrated coolant as there will be no metal ions or other corrosive ions in it, leading to a longer coolant system life.

On a side note, if you are buying water for drinking, NEVER!!!!! buy distilled water to drink. Because it has no impurities in it, when you drink it, it will pull stuff out of your body at a much higher rate than normal water and if you drink too much, it can lead to medical issues. Granted, it can also cause bowel problems with even a little bit of drinking in some cases. Water is a big think in my life as putting the wrong type of water into a nuclear reactor plant can cause big problems.

 

I had the EXACT same concerns about the impeller blades height. It's a significant difference, as well as the non-OEM pump's impeller having a bulkier main body. So there is a higher, bulkier body AND shorter blades. Now, to me this means that the manufacturer was worried about a blade breaking or chipping an edge, but to create the same pressure they had to bulk up the impeller body. This solves the pressure problem, but does not solve the VOLUME difference. Basically, the aftermarket pumps dontd push the same volume, only the same pressure. At least that is what it appears to do. I hunted down a pump with an impeller with the same dimensions as the OEM Ford pump, but with a metal inpeller. FoMoCo's had a plastic impeller, and was $200. Um, no thsnks. The impeller I found was made by Metric, and cost about $40 incl. shipping. It was shipped from a state in my general area of the country and arrived at noon the next day, less than 24hours, very, very fast, via UPS. I'm not putting any credentials on this next thought, but...my coolant system always seemed to be under quite a lot of pressure, which was evidenced by the pump gasket leak, thermostat gasket leak, thermostat housing gasket leak, an upper hose (plastic pipe to plastic pipe O-ring seal leak), and a cracked plastic T-pipe. In addition to my pump weeping leak, that's 5 leaks in the end, when I fixed it all. I drove it a few months with the leaks, not knowing the severity of the situation, which, eventually shorted an O2 sensor also. In addition to normal increased pressure from heating and expanding water, I really believe the pump was pushing too much coolant through the system. Soooooo, that said, maybe the aftermarket pump manufacturers (and there's a LOT of them) recognized this problem and shortened the impeller blades to create less pressure and/or volume? Just as there were a lot of complaints regarding the plastic pipes used in the upper hose assembly, so at least one manufacturer made steel pipes to correct the issue of cracking old, brittle pipes. Anyway, the steel solved the problem.

New Metrix and original FoMoCo pumps with virtually identical impellers and construction.

 

If it's a very long and thin rubber hose, it is likely the battery drain hose for when a battery is overcharged and needs a relief drainage. The battery has an outlet at the top on one side Wich you attach it to, if you have a Jaguar recommend battery instalked from Interstate Batteries. Most new batteries are factory sealed and require no maintenance, so that tube is technically obsolete now. But the factory recommended Interstate Battery will still have the drain valve to connecr it to. Battery acid is very caustic and will rot your car's metal parts very quickly unless you drain it to the ground through that rubber hose.