hinglemccringleberry

Early failure. The water pump on my 2013 5.0 blew up at 49,930 miles today. Ive had an intermittent squealing noise from the pump for the last few days, so I've been compiling my shopping list for buying a new water pump and related parts. Then while I was on the highway today I got the grind of death.... By the time I was able to limp into an empty lot next to the highway, my temp gauge had risen from normal to 90% in the span of about 2-3 minutes. I shut her off, and then came the white clouds from the engine bay. There was zero coolant left. I wiped off the coolant splattered all over the engine, and checked the dipstick. Oil looks fine.
I know what the drill is now based on the many threads about this. My question is, to those of you 5.0 owners who experienced a similar water pump blowup, did your engine survive the incident? I want to know if the overheating I experienced was enough to cook the engine. (I'm going to change the oil regardless).
Also did any of you guys get hit with broken water pump parts entering your engine and causing catastrophic failure at some point down the road? This has been discussed in a few threads, but I dont know what happened long term to the engines of those poor folks whose 5.0's got stranded by this issue.
I don't hate Ford, and I love the hell out of my truck, but I've already suspected for some time now that this will be my last Ford product. This just confirms it. I can't be replacing a water pump every 40k miles because Ford refuses to upgrade the cheap bearings in these OEM pumps that they're putting on high HP engines.
Thanks for any input and happy Memorial Day.

antony1103

Did the truck actually go into limp mode, or did you just baby it off the highway? If you never actually pegged your coolant temp gauge and the temp rose that slowly, you should be fine. Does everything sound/run normal when you crank it back up? At minimum, I would change the oil and get an oil analysis to see how much wear metals are in the oil.

Not a 5.0 or even a ford, but I blew a head gasket on a beater civic last year and drove it another mile or 2 with the coolant temp pegged in the red. I just needed to get to my shop for some rush jobs and wasn't really worried about killing a $400 craigslist beater... After fixing the head gasket its been driving fine ever since, and an oil analysis came back pretty normal for an engine with 175k on it. I'd assume that the 5.0 should fair even better after loosing coolant than a tiny civic motor due to its larger coolant capacity, larger thermal mass, non-interference valve train, and general looser tolerances.

Massshole13sc

mine let go on the highway, 3 miles from home. had around 75k on the clock at the time. I limped home, replaced the water pump the next morning and have been good to go ever since. I dare say you'll be fine

Red89gt

You going to replace with motorcraft part with plastic impeller or aftermarket with metal impeller?
i am at 43k and had my pump changed twice under warranty caught them leaking before they let go.

King_RanchF150

Mine (2013 5.0) went out a couple months ago with 100K on the odo. Had just gotten on the interstate when it happened, white smoke grinding the whole shebang. Got it towed to the shop and was fixed a couple days later. I still check the coolant before we take it on road trips, but its run great ever since.

diegoo.jayjay

Not the 5.0 but my Eco popped the lower hose and survived. I think I saw 250-260 on the Torque app but 40k later still going strong.

diegoo.jayjay

Plastic: Less weight, less prone to rust, lighter on the bearing, etc.

Red89gt

Just asking the OP what he is going to go with.
Google it and you will see the debate across many forums on which material to go with.
All your points are spot on, not arguing.

hinglemccringleberry

I haven't been able to get any answers about that on this forum. No one can prove that the aftermarket pumps are any better or longer lasting than the Motorcrap pumps. All anyone can do is speculate about metal vs plastic impellers.
It really stinks because my powertrain warranty expired 3 months ago. Right before it expired I went to my dealership and begged them to replace the water pump under warranty because I had drops of coolant on my oil filter, but they determined that it was from a very slight seep at the t-connector, not the water pump. They wouldn't give me a new t connector either (because there were no drops on the ground and I barely lost any coolant).
It just blows my mind. They make these engines more and more powerful with each new generation, yet they cheap out on water pumps like never before. Makes absolutely no logical sense. I'm willing to bet stuff like this is resulting in Ford's decreasing market share.

BamaCraig

My water pump in my 14 5.0 went out in December while I was on the interstate heading to work on a Sunday. Temp gauge was near too hot, but I was able to get it off the interstate and add a gallon of water to it so I could limp it to a shop. Not issues since then and it has been fine the last 10K miles or so.