coloradoaudidude

On the road, 325 miles from home. Aux water pump splitting apart, massive coolant loss. Memorial Day weekend so nary a part to be found. A premium epoxy patch (well done) didn't work. QUESTION: Can I run without this pump temporarily? A simple elbow to plumb the intake/outtake is all it would take. Overheating an issue? I am in the Colorado mountains.

scarman

3/4" plastic or copper pipe with some clamps will fix it fine. It is not required when the engine is running. The pump is designed to cool down the turbo after shutdown, so make sure you give the temperature a chance to equalize for a minute or two before shutdown by idling the engine.

If the engine did not overheat from the coolant loss, there should be no problem.

coloradoaudidude

Just what i needed to hear. Got the bits, I'll run the fix in the a.m. and hit the road. Thanks.

UrS4boy

Further to scarman (Tom)'s suggestion, you might want to read
THIS

coloradoaudidude

Excellent link. Thanks.

coloradoaudidude

UPDATE :: Used a 3/4" plastic (ABS) elbow from Home Depot, plumbed it straight through. Ran like a charm, no overheating or seeping. Arrived home without incident, however, on my way to pick up a replacement pump (at approx the 400 mi mark), the plastic began to degrade and blew apart while pulling a lengthy climb. Bit of a roadside cool down, installed a spare elbow (which I bought "just in case"), replenished the coolant and was on my way. In hindsight, and for anyone else faced with this dilemma, a 1" brass elbow would have been ideal, esp. if you have a lot of tough miles to cover before you can get a new pump. Thanks again, guys.

UrS4boy

I changed the pump write up to note that the ABS fitting won't last very long.

scarman

I suspect that was PVC plastic pipe (white) rather than ABS (black) but both are cold water pipes only. They lose over half strength at 110º F. Hot water plastic piping for homes is CPVC or PE and would be the choice for this application. The disadvantage is they can not be solvent welded (glued) and are usually joined with compression fittings. I had never thought that any education on pipe was necessary.

My choice is to make up the necessary fitting with copper pipe. I assume that is what you meant instead of brass since brass fittings would not easily connect to the rubber hose, and did you mean 3/4" and not 1"? I recommend that this fitting be a standard part of your emergency kit along with some ready-to-use coolant.