I had some doubts as to whether the noise was the water pump as it was not leaking... never ran in to that before. But after a little more extensive reading here I was not the only one with a leak-free but noisy water pump.

It is all buttoned up and I drove it to work... nice and quiet now. And no leaks anywhere. So the rad and block have been flushed, it has all new hoses and clamps, a new belt and a new waterpump. All of the other pulleys on the belt are checked out and are fine. As a bonus, I got the left side aux fan running. I just gave it a good shot of contact cleaner inside while everything was nice and cold. When I turned the AC on both fans spun up with no assistance for the first time. It took a long time to get all of the air out of the system... if it is all out even now.

The new thermostat must be slightly different than the old. On the highway, the temp needle rests in the top circle of the 8 for the 80 mark. I don't know what temp that actually represents but am guessing close to 90 since it is about halfway between the 80 tick mark and the next one up. Before the new parts the needle stayed in the center of the 8. With the AC on and idling it climbs up to the 100 tick.

I checked the radiator with an infrared thermometer when it was good and hot (needle close to 100). It was reading 93-94 pretty consistently across.

Would I do this job again? Absolutely, now that I have acquired/made the tools needed. I sacrificed a few ball end allen wrenches, using the Dremel to cut them to the length needed to get the waterpump bolts off and to be able to torque them. A few $10 sets of allens is a lot cheaper than 5 hrs labor... and now I have the tools. And the front & left side of the engine are now very clean!

Thanks to all for your help!

__________________
Tim Benner

00 ML320 170K
95 E320 wgn 160K