2005 6.0l Vortec Water Pump Gaskets

tjg79 · April 26, 2011

Anyone have a problem with water pump gasket leaks? My neighbor has a 2005 3500 Van w/ 6.0L Vortec with about 85k miles and he was having the mysterious coolant leak. After additional time, he did notice a few drops of coolant on the driveway and suspected the water pump was going. When we pulled the water pump four of six water pump mounting bolts had indications of leaking coolant. It appears the OE water pump gasket is not a good fit in that the rubber seals partially overlap the mounting bolt hole. The gasket is metal with a intergal rubber seal around the water port. It looks like a poorly designed gasket for the water pump.

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue and if they were successful with reinstalling OE gaskets. I'm thinking a thick paper gasket may be a better solution for this application.

Regards

WORICP · April 27, 2011

Anyone have a problem with water pump gasket leaks? My neighbor has a 2005 3500 Van w/ 6.0L Vortec with about 85k miles and he was having the mysterious coolant leak. After additional time, he did notice a few drops of coolant on the driveway and suspected the water pump was going. When we pulled the water pump four of six water pump mounting bolts had indications of leaking coolant. It appears the OE water pump gasket is not a good fit in that the rubber seals partially overlap the mounting bolt hole. The gasket is metal with a intergal rubber seal around the water port. It looks like a poorly designed gasket for the water pump.

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue and if they were successful with reinstalling OE gaskets. I'm thinking a thick paper gasket may be a better solution for this application.

Regards

I just changed the water pump on my 2002 for a leaking gasket at around 90K. It was a slow leak for about 4 months until I decided to check it out.

frdfandc · April 27, 2011

Welcome to the club.

The water pump gaskets were redesigned to provide better sealing. When I did mine on my 03 Silverado, the new gaskets were different than the ones that were originally on the truck.

tjg79 · April 27, 2011

Welcome to the club.

The water pump gaskets were redesigned to provide better sealing. When I did mine on my 03 Silverado, the new gaskets were different than the ones that were originally on the truck.

When were they redesigned? What was the change? Looking at images online, I see what appear to be a few design variations.

The rubber ring portion of the originals in this '05 3500 6.0L van appear to interfere over the mounting holes by about half the width of the flattened rubber ring. My neighbor purchased aftermarket replacements that appear to fit better. We haven't opened their plastic packaging yet, but when I checked their alignment, the pre-flattened rubber ring appears to not extend into the mounting hole area. I could be wrong and they could be identical to the oe gaskets; I hope not.

Regards