Please excuse the quality of the pics here, they we taken with my cell phone.

The other nite I had my Chevelle and my buddy had his 86 442 out. We were making a quick trip to 7-11 from our garage. I pulled on to the main road in 1st gear and let the car go all the way to thru 3rd. Jay followed suit in the 442 , sbc roller motor, a legit 12 sec car.

I was already out of my car when he coasted into the parking lot. His car wasn't running and had a huge trail of fluid from under his car.

He said "I think I threw a rod!"

Turns out his Duralast water pump couldn't take the revs (7000 shifting to 2nd) and the shaft snapped at the bearing. The flex fan, pulley and fan spacer went wild under the hood. The radiator was torn up like it was made of paper. We only found a few pieces of the shroud. He has a fiberglass 442 hood on the car that was just painted and the fan went thru the top of the hood!

He pretty much had the car back up and running in a few days, but when he went and bought another Duralast water pump, all I could do was shake my head. Some people just never learn.

Please excuse the quality of the pics here, they we taken with my cell phone.

The other nite I had my Chevelle and my buddy had his 86 442 out. We were making a quick trip to 7-11 from our garage. I pulled on to the main road in 1st gear and let the car go all the way to thru 3rd. Jay followed suit in the 442 , sbc roller motor, a legit 12 sec car.

I was already out of my car when he coasted into the parking lot. His car wasn't running and had a huge trail of fluid from under his car.

He said "I think I threw a rod!"

Turns out his Duralast water pump couldn't take the revs (7000 shifting to 2nd) and the shaft snapped at the bearing. The flex fan, pulley and fan spacer went wild under the hood. The radiator was torn up like it was made of paper. We only found a few pieces of the shroud. He has a fiberglass 442 hood on the car that was just painted and the fan went thru the top of the hood!

He pretty much had the car back up and running in a few days, but when he went and bought another Duralast water pump, all I could do was shake my head. Some people just never learn.


I personally do not buy anything from Autozone unless I have to... their brand "Duralast" is the reason. I have constantly had problems with that brand whether if its brakes, starters, alternators, water pumps, fuel pumps, etc. My dad actually threw a Duralast alternator through their front window when he went through 13 of them in 1 month that were consistantly going out and they wouldn't give him his money back. He then went to Oreilly's and bought one and it has been on that truck for about 10 years now.

Good thing to remember.

Any chance he had the belt too tight?

I'll never understand that about certain companies. If the part fails one time, give the customer a replacement. If the replacement fails, give them their money back.

Any chance he had the belt too tight?

Maybe he did have it too tight. Never gave that much thought.

HAHA! Then it wouldnt be cheep parts it would be a cheep pocket book. Trying to fix something when you have no knowledge on how to do it. :noway::p:sad::clonk::rolleyes:

First Guess: It wasn't the water pump that failed, it was the flex-fan. NO water pump is going to hang on when that much imbalance is swinging around at 7K crank speed--who knows what the water pump RPM was? You're blaming the WRONG PART for this disaster.

Yet another in a long line of reasons to NOT USE A FLEX FAN as far as I'm concerned. Flex-fan failure is almost comically common--if it didn't screw up cars and kill people.

What Schurkey said, those fans are garbage. much better off with a stock fan and clutch. Some of us have learned the hard way about those fans. I had one of those things pitch a blade while I leaning over the engine winging the throttle. it touched the side of my neck as it exited the area. A few inches over and it would have cut my head off like a guillotine.

What Schurkey said, those fans are garbage. much better off with a stock fan and clutch. Some of us have learned the hard way about those fans. I had one of those things pitch a blade while I leaning over the engine winging the throttle. it touched the side of my neck as it exited the area. A few inches over and it would have cut my head off like a guillotine.


Jeez, you are one lucky man.

Respectfully,
John R.

What Schurkey said, those fans are garbage. much better off with a stock fan and clutch. Some of us have learned the hard way about those fans. I had one of those things pitch a blade while I leaning over the engine winging the throttle. it touched the side of my neck as it exited the area. A few inches over and it would have cut my head off like a guillotine.

:eek:That must have freaked you out a bit...:eek:

well....i suppose the top of the prioroty list for things to do to my chevelle has changed. time to get rid of the flex fan.

First Guess: It wasn't the water pump that failed, it was the flex-fan. NO water pump is going to hang on when that much imbalance is swinging around at 7K crank speed--who knows what the water pump RPM was? You're blaming the WRONG PART for this disaster.

Yet another in a long line of reasons to NOT USE A FLEX FAN as far as I'm concerned. Flex-fan failure is almost comically common--if it didn't screw up cars and kill people.

Yep, flex fans are trouble waiting to happen, don't know why anybody buys them,

I bought a Deraile fan because quite a few guys here recomended it. Is it junk too?

First Guess: It wasn't the water pump that failed, it was the flex-fan. NO water pump is going to hang on when that much imbalance is swinging around at 7K crank speed--who knows what the water pump RPM was? You're blaming the WRONG PART for this disaster.

You make a good point. But unless we have a CSI unit examine all the parts with a dual-column gas chromatograph, Hewlett-Packard model 5710a with flame analyzing detectors. I'm sticking with the water pump being junk.

I would never use a flex fan. But my buddy put another flex fan on to complement his new duralast water pump! Like I said before, some people just never learn.

I shop at NAPA for all my car parts when possible, some tools also. I'll watch Autozone for sales on fluids and filters and stuff like that. I've bought a body saw, a cut-off tool and a water seperator from Advance and have had no problems with them and was suprized in the build quality. Carquest is pretty good quality to. In Brunswick, Napa and Carquest are right next door to each other.
Oh yeah, and Summit is 40 min. away!:thumbsup:

Built to last Duralast!

He must have some money. Like the saying goes...only rich people can buy cheap parts cause they have the money to replace them.

auto crap zone reminds me of walmart i don't shop at either store, i purchase alot of my parts from summit or jeggs, also napa and somtimes O'reillys, i remember the last time i walked into an auto zone a few years ago and gave all the info for an optispark distributer, no one including the manager knew what an optispark was, sad but true anyway the parts stores now days are a dissapointment , without that computer there lost and somtimes they still don't know what there doing.

auto crap zone reminds me of walmart i don't shop at either store, i purchase alot of my parts from summit or jeggs, also napa and somtimes O'reillys, i remember the last time i walked into an auto zone a few years ago and gave all the info for an optispark distributer, no one including the manager knew what an optispark was, sad but true anyway the parts stores now days are a dissapointment , without that computer there lost and somtimes they still don't know what there doing.
Summit sells some junk as well. I bought a pile of stuff in one order. In that order was a upper rad hose. Simple hay? The hose was short by 2 1/2 inchs. Some one had cut the end off. It must have been a returned item.:clonk: Can't return it. I live in Northern Alberta, Canada.

I don't really blame Summit though. They have been real good to me. But I wish they would slow down a bit and check stuff before throwing it in a box for shipping.

So what is a good fan...I dont have the oem one and have a 67 bb 400 hp
Never much cared for flex fans but got mine free. Also I have an alluminum rad .

Another vote against that type of flex fan on a high performance 7,000 rpm engine - that is guaranteed to be a water pump killer. I have seen factory new and quality aftermarket water pumps fail just like that with heavy flex fans, this isn't going to be a problem just for Duralast products.

Big flex fans are made for low to moderate rpm engines.

Small flex fans don't move enough air for good low speed stuck in traffic cooling.

I like viscous non-thermal clutch fans that decouple after an moderate rpm threshold. For years I have used the standard parts store non-thermal fan clutch and matched 5 or 6 blade fan.

Thomas

one question y dont he just go to a electric fan

Don't buy stuff at Auto Zone!!!!

When a customer comes in and says, I don't understand, I just replaced this part myself and it's doing the same thing. The first thing I ask is where they got the part. If the answer is Auto Zone, I tell them yea, it's probably bad. I have had the absolute worst luck with thier crap, and will NOT put anything they have on my car.

after removing/re-installing wheel bearing/hub assemblies on my grand prix gt more times than any one person should EVER have to, i learned my lesson about duralast parts.

they are not worth the energy to melt down and turn into something else.

Interesting thread. I have a no name rebuilt water pump that has been on my hot rod for 10 years, over a hundred track passes, shifts at 6100, sprayed regularly, with a 20 year old stock tensioner, and it seems fine. I did put a $20 electric fan on there and it has underdrives.

If you are going to 7k shifting I would highly recommend either a serpentine belt, or deep groove v belt setup, underdrive pulleys and an electric fan setup.

Auto Zone carries the basic parts for an inexpensive price. When you get more in depth they either don't carry them, offer them in an assembly or are very expensive, an example of this is a compressor clutch and field coil. I have found a Carquest store to be more economical and helpful when it comes to unusual pieces.

Auto Zone is a step above Advance and below Oreilly's. Oreilly's will price match Auto Zone and has a better selection.

I buy all the stuff for my daily driver and some of it for the Chevelle at Autozone and have never had a problem with any of it. The guys behind the counter know their stuff and the parts are reasonably priced.

This is a good example of why supplier bashing is frowned upon in these forums. It's a heck of a lot of fun to jump on the band wagon and complain about bad experiences but nobody wants to talk about a purchase where nothing goes wrong.

BTW, I support the theory that it was the flex fan that failed and not the water pump, especially since it was the shaft that broke and not the impeller. An out of balance fan can do a lot of damage at 7000 rpm.

Tom

My son put one of those fans on the ElCamino when he owned it. He was running it about three days when he came to me and said he had a bad vibration in the engine. Had him start it and I could see the fan shake! I pulled it off and found two cracked blades, but that was not the problen. I looked at the bolt holes and noticed they were off to one direction (all four) then it dawned on me. The center hole was off center!!! I told him to take it back and put a stock fan on it. When I got the Elky back it had another flex on it!:sad: I have seen a lot of these fans shuck blades off. Onch at US41 a blade slung off and hit the guys teenage son right in the forehead! luckily it glanced off. Kid had 22 stitches and a nice scar to remember it by.:(

AutoZone has a lifetime warranty. All that means is you will spend a lifetime replacing the same parts! I get important parts from NAPA, Car Quest and Bumper to Bumper!:yes:

.

This is a good example of why supplier bashing is frowned upon in these forums. It's a heck of a lot of fun to jump on the band wagon and complain about bad experiences but nobody wants to talk about a purchase where nothing goes wrong.


Tom

This wasn't meant as a supplier bashing. In the title it was really just about cheap parts in general. It was just meant as an example of what happens when we use inferior parts on some very high performance cars.

I may be wrong about the water pump and all of the burden may be on the flex fan, but we will never know for sure.

I never complained here about how many times I have had to bring an alternator back to them. But that never turned into a potentially dangerous situation. A water pump shaft snapping at 7000 rpm is very dangerous.

I haven't taken the time to measure the shaft on the broken water pump, but I have seen Summit advertise water pumps with a heavy duty 3/4 shaft, but they cost 2X's as much.

P.S. the wax I bought at autozone the other day worked great!!!!