Question regarding Power Steering Pumps and Headgasket rebuilds

[Dementedfish]

Hey everyone! I have two questions today:

First, my power steering pump is going out. My mechanic seems to think it's more than likely on the out because of the one-size bigger tires and lift I recently put on. The car has 200k on it so that kind of makes sense. He's afraid however that if we put an OEM one on, it could potentially fail again, and cause it to make the horrendous noise that I'm currently experiencing. Are there any aftermarket pumps people are running that you would all recommend, or are people pretty much running stock pumps?

Second, I also need new headgaskets. For those that rebuild these often, should I keep everything stock or do you recommend using something like ARP studs? OEM gaskets as well? I'm supercharged and plan on adding a smaller pulley and a 7th injector kit if that makes a difference.

Thanks everyone!

 

[thegipper]

There is a screen on the power steering reservoir that often gets plugged up with gunk over time. If you haven't already tried cleaning that, you may want to check it out before buying a new pump. Tim/Sean have a youtube video on it (youtube search : timmy the toolman).

OEM pump should be fine to run larger tires and shouldn't have had anything to do with it failing (assuming it is bad). My truck has the original OEM pump with 222k miles on it and I have slightly larger tires than OEM, works fine.

I never did HG's on one of these trucks so I got nothing for ya there.

Good luck

 

[dogtail]

Most likely your power steering fluid just needs to be emptied out of all the old junk fluid and refilled. Almost all power steering pump noises are caused by bad fluid and/or plugged up >> [MENTION=138943]thegipper[/MENTION] reference. Just clean it out and and you'll probably be ok. If the mechanic didn't recommend flushing out the power steering fluid, I'd find another mechanic. I've got 374K on my original power steering pump. I flushed mine out when it was making a horrible noise, completely quiet after flush. Same thing happened on the wifes Benz, flushed it, and its quiet.

 

[DreadPirateJon]

These pumps also use ATF not powersteering fluid. I've heard from people that have run powersteering fluid that it will cause the pump to whine.

 

[brillo_76]

These pumps also use ATF not powersteering fluid. I've heard from people that have run powersteering fluid that it will cause the pump to whine.

I made that mistake once. The wine drove me crazy. Yes the 3rd gens use atf. With a clean screen and good atf in them. They are nice a quiet. :]

Sent from my SM-J337V using Tapatalk

 

[gamefreakgc]

Second, I also need new headgaskets. For those that rebuild these often, should I keep everything stock or do you recommend using something like ARP studs? OEM gaskets as well? I'm supercharged and plan on adding a smaller pulley and a 7th injector kit if that makes a difference.

Thanks everyone!

Stick to OEM gaskets they handle boost very well. I push around 10-11 PSI and have not had any issues. It's well documented that you can push 15 PSI on stock heads & bolts (with a turbo).