Nothing wrong with the silicone, but it's really a "belt and suspenders" measure, the press-fit is what does 99.99% of the sealing. I think they do use a sealant from the factory, but it's more of a "defect prevention" thing than it is a "primary seal" thing, all it does is stop parts getting returned as often. And you gotta remember, these cars back in those days were lucky to get 20k miles before they needed a valve re-grind anyways (part of why they used leaded gas), so they saw service a lot more frequently than modern vehicles. That means that this water pump is gonna need to get worked on again sooner or later (and probably sooner), no matter how good of a job you do on it, just due to the nature of the design of the thing. Point is, sometimes "they don't build them like they used to" is a good thing! These days water pumps last as long as the timing belt does, or longer. But you change the water pump when you change the timing belt because you've already got the thing torn down that far, the water pump is driven from the timing belt, and it's not worth "not doing" while you're in there. Saves the customer money of having a potential overheat down the road in any case.
Nothing wrong with the silicone, but it's really a "belt and suspenders" measure, the press-fit is what does 99.99% of the sealing.
I think they do use a sealant from the factory, but it's more of a "defect prevention" thing than it is a "primary seal" thing, all it does is stop parts getting returned as often.
And you gotta remember, these cars back in those days were lucky to get 20k miles before they needed a valve re-grind anyways (part of why they used leaded gas), so they saw service a lot more frequently than modern vehicles. That means that this water pump is gonna need to get worked on again sooner or later (and probably sooner), no matter how good of a job you do on it, just due to the nature of the design of the thing.
Point is, sometimes "they don't build them like they used to" is a good thing! These days water pumps last as long as the timing belt does, or longer. But you change the water pump when you change the timing belt because you've already got the thing torn down that far, the water pump is driven from the timing belt, and it's not worth "not doing" while you're in there. Saves the customer money of having a potential overheat down the road in any case.
Thanks for the Comment, I really appreciate it.