Non leaking water pump. Definitely, this time.

A while ago I replaced the gasket on the rear cover plate on the water pump. I used a good quality felpro gasket and some hylomar blue but still managed to make a balls of it and it was weeping slightly from the bottom (the bit you can't get to with the pump still on the engine).

I decided to replace all the water pump gaskets including the pump-to-block gaskets with black RTV. It took a while to clean all the old felpro gasket off where it had been practically welded on by the heat but 50 miles or so later and its still dry. I'm cautious to say its a success so I'll keep an eye on it.

This was the mess that the old gasket had made - lower two screws on the back plate were weeping and making a mess of the harmonic balancer.

While I had the cooling system in bits I moved the fan temperature switch to before the radiator instead of after so the fan kicks in based on the engine temp (or at least closer to it) rather than the cooled water that has just been through the radiator which seems more sensible. I also managed to shuffle the header tank up a little higher.