Hi everyone, I have a question. The water pump on my 455 went, and it broke 3 of the 6 fins off the impeller. They went inside the engines water passages, and I cant get them out. Will they get lodged into a passage and cause me overheating issues, or worse...

 

 

Times 2 on that↑

 

I saw a piece fall into the drivers side hole for the water, but the other 2 I havent seen. Tried to flush it out with a garden hose, nothing

 

OK, how the heck do you break the vanes off the impeller? The only ways I can think of (and even these are a stretch) are the pump was turned when there was ice in the cooling jacket, or they were so badly rusted that they fell off. Is this a factory cast iron impeller or an aftermarket stamped steel one?

 

I think it was an aftermarket, Joe. Was on the car when I bought it. I was driving down the highway, and the temp started to get erratic. The fan wobbled, and the shaft broke. Had to have the car towed 30 miles home. Just took the pump off and noticed the impeller is missing 3 of the 6 vanes, which I know are inside the water passages

 

Kaboomski

 

Yep, that's a rebuild with a stamped steel impeller.

So that caused the vanes to contact block and/or timing cover and break off. Wow, the bearing must have been shot for the shaft to move that much.

 

That's the weird part, it didn't make noises or anything before it went. Broke the power steering belt, but the fan belt stayed on. That fan is clunky, so I'm going with an electric one

 

I think you'd be better off with a new clutch fan. If it really is out of shape that might account for the broken impeller blades, on the other hand a bad water pump could well make the fan run out of true.

Roger.

 

Is there a chance the pieces are in the Radiator instead of the engine?.

Many years ago I had a 302 Ford that would overheat for no apparent reason. I replaced and inspected everything relating to the cooling system (Including replacing head gaskets). One of the first things I replaced was the water pump and a couple of the impellers were rusted off. I always suspected that they were laying in the bottom of one of the water passages and would move around every once in a while and restrict flow.

 

That seal/bearing looks wasted also. It's not even concentric anymore

 

Yeah, that's the fundamental problem. The OP is lucky. I had a similar failure on a 454 in a truck, and the shaft went forward, so the fan took out the radiator.


If the impeller is steel, a magnet on a string comes to mind. If they're stainless, you're kind of screwed.


By the way, this photo has just made me swear to only use pumps with cast impellers from now on!

 

Considering their isn't much corrosion, it would take some force to snap 3 of the 6 stamped impellers.
The vanes are form bent and much too big to get through any water passages IMO,
I would think along the same lines as Sampson, the pieces are probably in the radiator tank.
You will be able to fish them out of the bottom through the lower rad hose connection.

Eric

 

Well, maybe not all the way into the tank, but probably in the lower radiator hose.

 

True, especially, if the factory spring was used in the replaced lower rad hose. The flow pressure certainly wouldn't push it much past the spring haha.

 

Especially considering that the lower hose flows FROM the radiator TO the water pump.

 

Could the lower radiator hose spring have broken and jammed the impeller? I've seen some pretty rusted springs in lower radiator hoses. Good post, makes you think about routinely changing that lower hose.

 

The impellers wouldn't get past the heater hose nipples unless they were all bent to hell haha, Try to bend an already formed stamping of that thickness never mind ripping it off?? They would need to be pry'd up in order to snap off like that.. looking at the other vanes.. not even bent , just scuff marks.. I'm surprised they didn't fall out when he took the water pump out.
This is a case of the disappearing water pump vanes, I think the poster is pulling our chain .

 

One of the vanes was in the round hole on the drivers side of the engine. When I went to retrieve it, it fell into the block straight down. The other 2, hopefully they will be in the radiator. I will remove the lower hose and take a gander at it

 

I just bought on of those cameras like on the end of a piece of tubing and maybe a 4" screen display that is hand held. The camera/light fit nicely down the EGR tubes in my intake manifold. That was it's first successful use for me but I think you may have found another place that it could be tried. I will say that the end won't bend around sharp corners.