I recently got the banjo bolts installed in my 2002 AP1 with <20k miles on it and switched to synthetic. While doing the install at the shop, they said my water pump has a slight leak. Could this cause a decrease in power? from rolling starts at like 10mph my friend's stock '05 AP2 pulled on me pretty bad and my other buddy with >220k miles on his '00 AP1 was also pulling on me. He has J's header, dual exhaust, and K&N FIPK. I have mugen header, exhaust, AEM CAI, and 4.44 final drive. I dont really care that I'm not as fast, just hope nothing is wrong with the car and hopefully its just this water pump thing. thanks for the info in advance guys. I'm going to switch cars with them and see if its driver error, but im not really sure how i could screw it up that bad at more than 5 runs

 

Water pump should have nothing to do with how fast your car feels, unless its causing your car to over heat in which case would cause the car to feel slugish. If your water pump is leaking, that is a sign that it is about to fail and you need to replace it. They are designed that way.

However, if you have 4.44gears and your friends are pulling on you, esp that ap1, then you may either have bad driving skills or something could be wrong. The 4.44 gears should help quite abit in acceleration.

 

thats what I was thinking... I should be faster... I dont think its my driving skills, but in order not to be ignorant, im going to swap cars with that AP1 and test it again and see if its driving error

 

Do a compression check...if you have low compression in one or more cyl that can explain why the car isn't pulling as strong.

 

Were you the one to put the miles on the car, or another owner?

Here's what I'm thinking, hoping to be way wrong:

The pump leaked a long time ago, got low on coolant, slightly overheated. Now it's still leaking, but the engine's deck or head are warped, or whatever overheating does.

Hope I'm wrong, though.

 

I got it used at <12k miles. how much is a compression check?

kirpich... how would i go about testing your theory?

thanks guys

 

One way to take out driver error, start in 3rd gear at 30mph and pull to redline....you remove launching factor and shifting.

 

i will try thanks

 

thats a bad idea, you can blow your motor like that.

 

I've been redlining it fine ever since i got it, through 8 thousand miles. tempratures have never been at 4 or more marks and my friend drove it and didn't notice anything until after i mentioned it.