On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 5:04 PM, Tom Buese <tombuese@comcast.net> wrote:

> am wondering whether I should put the new Heppu water pump I have in my
> parts stash in now instead of on the road in some god forsaken place on the
> way?  My present water pump appears to be doing fin

Last month I finally got the engine out of my '90 GL and into my '90
non-GL. I replaced all the fuel lines, injectors, sensors, and everything
else that looked like it needed replacing, which was a lot, because while
the engine has shiny AMC heads, I bet the case has at least 90K without
being cracked open, because all the O rings and gaskets are hard as a rock.
Heck, the short block might be the original from 160K ago. The right-angle
coolant pipe on the right was still original plastic. I decided to leave
the old water pump on because I was in a hurry and it had never leaked
before. I got the engine in, filled up the fluids, started it up, and (of
course) the water pump was leaking. This added a full day's work to the
project because I had to pull the water pump while the engine was in. It
would've been an easy hour's work if I'd done it while it was out. The old
O-ring was hard as a rock, and the stator under the pump vanes was so
corroded away it looked like the pitted surface of a meteor. My conclusion:
an 80K+ water pump is not to be trusted.

But getting to the point, I think the wisest words on the subject came from
someone on the list here in reference to belts:

"The best place to store new parts purchased as backup to old parts is ON
THE ENGINE, then save the old part as the backup."