I'm about to buy a water pump and fan clutch for my Buick 350 I just had rebuilt and I'm a little but confused. There appears to be a heavy duty water pump and a standard duty water pump. Is there a reason I should spend another $15 for the heavy duty pump? The other thing is that the regular pump is in stock, the HD one needs special ordered, so it'd take a week or so to get it. Same thing with fan clutches- there is a standard duty thermal, a heavy duty thermal and a non-thermal. Both thermal ones are in stock, the non thermal has to be special ordered. Which should I go with?
one thing to watch out for the body depth, some pumps for the 350 are deeper then others. The water pumps over on taperformance.com might shed some light, as far as the clutch, the non thermal will just be on no matter what, the thermals will come on and off at certain temps, amazon has a good one (flex-a-lite 5555)
use whatevery one matches the bracketry you're using. i always buy one for an 84/85 GN since my regal uses the 1980s 231 bracketry. Yeah, the HD ones usually are special order, but i've used the standard duty and have been just fine.
My guess is the HD ones probably have bigger bearings in them? I was going to order them from RockAuto but in this case it's actually cheaper to buy it local.
So I know I need a medium body pump to work with my brackets. Are the TA high performance pumps worth the money? $200 for a water pump seems awfully expensive.
