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Who handles Volvo water pump seals

1988760

New member
Joined
Nov 24, 2015
Hi...my 88 760 T-Wagon Hepu pump is 6 years old with 13K miles on it. I notice the grommet seems to leak a bit. Start the car cold and it leaks a bit, after it gets hot the leaking stops and the coolant burns dry. You can watch it run when hot and not a bit of leakage. Let it get completely cold and a bit of leakage, Then a bit after start until hot. Seems to be a hot and cold contraction.

I am afraid the grommet may partially break away and there I am. Everyone says use a Hepu pump with Volvo seals. I can find the pump, but who handles the Volvo seal package? My mechanic suggested new seals on the old pump...what do you think of that?

Thanks in advance,

Bill
 
I am also looking for the volvo seals. I want to have them on hand when my autozone water pump seals start to leak
 
Felpro carries a B230 water pump gasket kit for about $1.49. Comes with the gasket and a water pump to cylinder head seal, but not the coolant pipe to water pump square cut o-ring.
 
As you probably already know, Volvo doesn't sell a water pump gasket kit for the B230 engine. I have the OE Volvo top seals and heater pipe seals in stock, but the Volvo gasket is ridiculously expensive so I use Reinz gaskets.
 
hiperfauto is correct, Volvo does not make a kit; however, the gaskets are available individually.

There is one paper gasket and two sealing rings that are normally included in a water pump gasket kit. The Volvo OE part numbers for each are as follows:

1378491 is the paper gasket
3547991 is the mushroom-shaped top o-ring that seals against the head
418411 is the square-cut o-ring between the water pump and the coolant pipe

The links above are for Tasca Parts, who have the three seals for a total of $13.21 before shipping, etc.

I hope that helps.
 
I notice the grommet seems to leak a bit.

When installing a water pump, I seal paper gasket to pump, let it dry, and then use silicone grease on other side, and on both rings.

After putting pump in place, with nuts/bolts attached finger tight, I think I used a wooden long handle on a wire brush, and inserted it around base of pump, and applied an upward pressure, and then tightened down nuts/bolts.

There was something below water-pump that I placed one end of this handle on so it was holding that end from "falling" when I lifted the other end to raise pump. Wooden handle was not placed on harmonic balancer...
 
Why can't I use the seals that will come with the new HEPU pump I am getting? Use them like recommended above. I would think they would be OK. Whoever makes the Volvo seals may not be a great improvement over the seals sent with the Hepu pump...I would think.
 
Why can't I use the seals that will come with the new HEPU pump I am getting? Use them like recommended above. I would think they would be OK. Whoever makes the Volvo seals may not be a great improvement over the seals sent with the Hepu pump...I would think.

There is nothing stopping you from using the seals that come with the pump. However, the general consensus is that the seal between the pump and the head will eventually start to leak.

I saw that with my Gates water pump kit. The gasket between the block and the pump blew out rather suddenly, and all I had handy was another Gates kit (but was lucky to have the parts on hand). About a year or so later, the top seal was starting to drip.

I grabbed a set of Volvo seals and a Volvo gasket from the dealer and have those handy for next time.
 
My Wichita, Ks, dealer is rude and tells me my car is too old. He can order the grommet but wants 21 dollars for just the grommet, I am not paying that. I will try to get a different set from the foreign car place here in town for Saturday. They say they have OEM stuff. Maybe I will get lucky.
 
For what it's worth, I used the Gates seals on a water pump I did on a budget-oriented friend's 940 and gave the the upper ring seal a precautionary thin coat of RTV. I also made sure to lever the pump up against the head while tightening the bolts.

Nary a drop has dripped in the ensuing two years.
 
Seems that a slice could be cut from a piece of 1 inch diameter solid (not braided) synthetic rubber hose for the square cut O-ring. Dish washer drain hose comes to mind.
 
Yeah I used a generic O ring replacement pack from fred meyer one night about 11pm as that rubber o ring between the head and water pump blew out and freddies was the only place open. The o ring pack had about 10 different sized ones in the pack and two of the one size worked. Racked and stacked em.
 
^Entire cooling system is under some pressure relative to atmospheric normally though?

Pump it to Me!
The centrifugal water pump


Two basic requirements must be met in order to maintain fluid movement with any centrifugal pump. The first is the pump's ability to generate sufficient pressure to overcome static head pressure and system resistance at the discharge (outlet). This requirement is self-evident and does not present any hydraulic limitation because, given sufficient pump size and rotating speed, almost any level of flow can be reached. The second requirement applies to the suction side of the pump where generation of a pressure gradient between the impeller and prevailing suction pressure is needed to draw the liquid into the pump.
==============

Different topic, but on a rural water district, the incoming pressure is around 100 psi (static), and outgoing pump pressure around 150 psi. If incoming pipes are not large enough, incoming side will show about 0 psi. This incoming water is traveling in a linear direction, and does not exert any pipe wall-pressure. Iirc, by pumping rules, inlet pressure should not drop below 20 psi. With lower inlet pressure, water cavitation will happen, and it sounds like "rocks" banging together.

So, there will be a pressure drop at inlet side...how much on a vehicle's water pump...it would depend upon outlet flow volume and its resistance to flow. This could be measured via an inlet hose on engines equip with them.
 
*shrug* running on a somewhat warm day (60+ F) at light load the lower radiator hose swells slightly even when revving the engine as it comes up to temp and the cooling system runs under the 75 or 150kpa cap.

Maybe if it were cold enough ambient on a cold engine at 6000rpm pressure in the lower radiator hose and/or inlet side of the pump would be lower than atmospheric, but it's unlikely it would be for long or at any other time.

Point is, more likely than not, fluid will be likely to escape under slight pressure relative to atmospheric in any/all parts of the cooling system most of the time/under most operating conditions rather than ambient air be drawn into the cooling system.

Apart from the lower radiator hose and heater return pipe, the block and cylinder head top o-ring are on the outlet/pressure side of the pump.
 
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