which water pump?

[Gene Alvarez]

Please help the easily confused...

My '86 944 NA needs a new water pump. The car and Porsches in general are new to me as of last week.

I have read that one should upgrade to the turbo pump, and that the retrofit requires adding a belt guard, a blocking plate, and a larger diameter roller. Understood.

My car has a non-turbo pump (there is metal where the extra coolant hole would be) and a belt guard. Semi-understood.

The catalogs (including Pelican) say to upgrade to newer style, old style not available, yet they list rebuilt non-turbo older pumps. Let's say these are upgraded rebuilds; how upgraded are they? As good as a turbo pump? If so, why do they sell blocking plates for the turbo pump? Baffled.

The question really is: exactly which pump should I order?

Thanks,

Gene

[Chris_924s]

New style is meant to upgrade older 944's. The turbo pump has an additional "port". check around, all else fails- call sales at Pelican. they will steer you right. I always felt more holes= more places to leak. I havent heard of replacing a NA with a turbo water pump "just because.."

[AFJuvat]

There were actually 3 different pumps in the series.

Original "early" pump - discontinued. Notorious for faiure. Very few of these are still around.

"mid" pump: Improved early pump, thermostat not set as deeply. Reliability greatly improved. This is the "early pump" that is common now.

"late" or "Turbo" pump. Improved design, greater reliability. Had the provision for connecting a water feed for the turbocharger, or a block off plate for NA vehicles.

The "late" or Turbo pump is, overall, the best pump. Reliability is better. However, if you have an early pump, you must purchase an update kit - a belt guard, improved roller, and templates for cutting the rear belt cover to make room for the updates.

Other considerations: If you have an early pump, you probably have a power steering line attached to it. you will have to update your power steering line (feed line) to the newer version to accomodate a late pump.

AFJuvat

[Gene Alvarez]

Thanks, AFJuvat, this is finally making sense. I haven't seen any mention in the catalogs about modifying the rear cover, but that doesn't sound too hard. As far as the power steering hose, is it just a matter of finding somewhere (else) to attach the support clip? Also, how late (model year) a turbo pump can I fit to an '86?

Thanks,

Gene

[AFJuvat]

The updated steering hose is like $40 and does directly from the reservoir to the pump - which has an updated fitting to accomdate the new hose

Any of the updated waterpumps will fit your car - no worries there.

AFJuvat