Interesting technique for analyzing engine noises!!.  I found it hard
to tell  what was going on as you moved from area to area it sounded
like you propped the cheater bar(holding the mic) against something
solid on the van and those vibrations pretty much masked any noise we
might've been able to hear.  I'd try the recording again, but this
time have it on something like a wood stick and don't have it touch
anything on the vehicle. Describe the area you are recording as
before, but don't get the microphone any closer to the area than your
ear can get, otherwise we'll hear sounds from the recording  that we
can't possibly recognize due to the fact that our ears can't get
there in the first place.   Shouldn't take a stethoscope to hear a
bad water pump.

For your next test, you might want to warm the engine up enough to
get the desired noise active again, then shut down, remove the
alternator/water pump belt, start the motor up and run it for maybe
10 or 15 seconds MAXIMUM(so you don't overheat the motor with no
coolant flowing), to see if the noise went away.  Once you have shut
the motor down this time and while the belt is off, I check for
wobble in the water pump pulley by grabbing it at 12 and 6 o'clock
and push/pull it front to back to look for play.  Spin the alternator
by hand and listen for a non--smooth sounding ballsy rumble.  Fifteen
seconds with no water pump shouldn't create a problem and is plenty
of time to hear whether you have less racket than before.

Just my .02

DM&FS

At 08:03 AM 9/17/2009, B Feddish wrote:
>OK, I just recorded my engine in the parking lot at work. I am putting a
>cheater bar up to the mic to listen to engine sounds. Whats everyones
>concesus on that water pump?
>
>http://www.feddishbasses.com/vw click on the link at the top.
>
>Thanks,
>Bryan