water pump oddity
 

I was driving home from lake havasu in az and a new ago I replaced the water pump but today when I was accerlerating up the hill it started to get hot like the water pump wasn't flowing enough water and the engine would sound like a diesal. but when it went flat it ran normal any opinions

Did you have sufficient coolant in the system? What is the radiator condition like? good thermostat?

what did your temp gauge show ?

the coolant was topped off the radiator is new its the 2 core from ipd the theromastat is new along with the hoses they were all done 6 months ago when I was driving around the temp gauge was running cool and as I accended the gradual 35 degree hill the temp started to climb and I pulled over shut it off before it got in the red. When I got home lastnight I did notice that the after market water pump had a different internal design then the stock 244 one could that have something to do with it?

I doubt the design of the pump is the problem... Are you still having the problem with over heating? I'd take out the thermostat, run it without it to see what happens. If that's not the reason, you head gasket may be the problem.

not overheating now it only wanted to overheat on the hills back to my house from then on on straight roads its fine runs better now I did a tune up this afternoon

curious as to where the temp gauge was sitting when you thought the engine was 'overheating'? i know sometimes mine goes all over the place from
dead low or not at all to just below the red zone at the top. i know it is the typical crazy temp gauge of volvo that is acting up, not
the engine that is overheating! now having said that, if the needle went all the way into the red zone i would stop immediately and check things out...

well, if it was getting hot enough to ping on a grade, pretty sure sign it was running too hot.

I used to flog my 1992 turbo wagon up all sorts of grades fully loaded, it hardly never got any warmer than normal even in hot weather.

it was running normal temps and then when I was climbing the steep gradual grade the gauge was showing hot and I pulled over and the engine was really hot when I popped the hood since then its been running normal and stays lower then half on the temp gauge I did do a tune up yesterday

it was climbing from normal half to almost in the red as I was going up the hill and I pulled over and shut it off before getting into the red

so you are not losing any coolant and no white exhaust visible?
perhaps the gauge is acting wonky which is typical in our Volvo's

didn't lose coolant but as soon as it started climbing on the gauge the car started running like ****

sounds like you may want to change out the 'aftermarket' pump for oem...

im going to once I get paid

A water pump is a very simple device. If it's not leaking and the impeller is still attached and turning, there is no need to change it, you'd be wasting your money.

maybe so lev, but as you well know our Volvo's prefer oem parts a lot of the time. aftermarket stuff sometimes just does not work, no matter
how much we want them to...
in the OP's case it seems this is a weak link in that system, but i still think the gauge is acting crazy/giving false readings. this is a well
documented problem...

Generally true with electrical parts but I never heard of a water pump problem such as this! One very rarely sees Volvo OEM water pumps anymore. It is just defying all logic. Was the pump just replaced before the overheating event? it's not clear from the post. If this is the case, then may be it is related to the pump but even then I'd say it is perhaps an air bubble... I do believe though that he has an overheating problem, not a gauge problem.

quite true, he may just need to 'burp' it.

the pump is a year old and I live in kingman az which is a very small town and usually don't take the 240 on the freeway much and there are steep hillls around me I have gotten bumk parts from autozone before and this incident I originally posted happened the first time I took it on the freeways in years

OK, that settles that.
I'd take it on that same run again and see if you duplicate what happened. Verify that it is indeed hot if it goes to hot on the gauge. Make sure that the coolant is topped off. That's what I would do... If it does that same thing then take a leak down test, may be a compression test too. Or you can do the tests now before further trips... May be easier if you have access to the gauges.

You didn't mention whether your car was a manual or automatic? If it is an automatic, your transmission might be the problem. Except for the pinging, my Ford Taurus started doing that too - normal temps when parked and idling and cruising around town. But accelerating on the highway and especially uphill it would get hot, not completely to the end of the temp gauge but about 3/4's. If it was an engine cooling problem, the exact opposite should have happened - hot in town but cooler on the highway due to increased airflow. Turns out the transmission was low on fluid, which made it run hotter than normal. That heat was being transferred to the bottom of the radiator. And from there transferred to the top of the radiator where the coolant picked up the heat and took it back to the engine. As soon as I topped up the tranny fluid everything went back to normal. And whatever the source of heating, hot engines will easily start pinging when under load, going uphill.