I bought a remanufactured waterpump from Pep Boys, it's by a company called "Pro-Cool". They were the cheapest($50) but also the only parts store offering lifetime warranty on the reman's(other than NAPA which was much more expensive).

In any case, I don't like the fact that the mating surfaces had a poor finish, so I used my dremel to polish them up. The hose attachments that screw into the WP don't appear to be stainless like the ones on my original pump. The sealant they used on those attachments has run all over the outside of the pump so I can only imagine there is plenty more on the inside.

Am I being paranoid? Have you guys who have used reman's before had any issues? I like the lifetime warranty idea, but it's not worth the cost of a new opti...

 

I used a remain on my corvette. when I pulled it to do the opti (unrelated) half of the ball bearings had fallen out the back and it would make a lot of noise when turning by hand. It had about 20K on it. Before I found that out I put a reman on my caprice. almost 15K miles and no problems so far...
If you plan on keeping your car for a while I'd go with the AC Delco unit
http://www.samtaylor.com/html/parts.html

 

I was going to go OEM but read that some people are having more problems with AC Delco originals- I did a lot of searching and found something about possible excess stock having sat for too long and rusted... Anyway I figured a reman with lifetime warranty would be the way to go(and cheap) but after seeing this piece I'm not so sure.

I did check with Jason and the price was still relatively high and even without the problems above I couldn't really justify this as a preventative measure.

Based on your experience, am I safer putting the original back on with 90K or the reman that might only last 15K?... I hate gambling with things like this, you just can't win!

On that note, has anyone had luck with incidental damage claims with parts stores?

 

Another vote on the Delco waterpump if you want to keep the car for a long time.

 

Just get an electric waterpump. Then it doesnt matter how bad of quality the internals are made, because you are taking them out anyhow.

Mine is really dirty and I dont feel like I can clean it as much as I would like so I will be getting a new one. Half of my bearings on the back are back about 1/4" from where they are supposed to be. So I think it doesnt matter if its a reman or a stock one. Btw, mine is a stock unit.

 

140 from Jason. I also picked up an LT4 starter from him for 165. It hard to beat his prices. A few bucks more and you get the O.E. parts.

 

Parts stores are not liable for damage caused by failing parts that may be under warrenty. I had a water pump impeller come off the water pump of a customers Lumina and tear up and crack the aluminum housing. The auto parts store couldn't do anything because they don't speak for the reman company who built the pump. I pursued it for some time and didn't get anything but a free replacement pump and a high cell phone bill.

 

If it was me, I'd go with the OEM unit.

I mean... if the quality of the mating surface was so poor that you had to clean it up with a Dremel, do you REALLY want to trust them to have done a good job on the rest of the pump? Changing the pump on a Gen II is a real pain in the @$$, much more so than on a Gen I. Enough so that it's worth bucking up for quality parts. I'd also suggest doing your Opti at the same time if your budget allows, or at least buy the new MSD Cap & Rotor from Summit for $150. It's MSD-8481 for the earlier non-vented and MSD-84811 for the later vented version.

 

Be prepared to wait till 5/28 for them to ship out. It seems to be a pretty popular item for them.

 

I bought the NAPA one last opti install and it also looked like a pos. That was about 20K ago no problems yet, but my opti just crapped again and I seriously dont know if I want to put that pump back on, even though it is not leaking yet.