My opinion on the matter is I think oem is better for the following reasons.

-My first banshee was a 1988 and it had the oem in there when I took the clutch cover off to inspect the clutch in 2013?? In perfect working order. Not bad ..
- the shaft of the oem pump is high carbon steel and impeller chemical resistant nylon. Good because the shaft will resist wear and deformation where it seat through the bearing and water seal.and the nylon impeller and high carbon shaft is more suitable for the extreme temperature fluctuation and dose not expand and contract as much when heated and cooled over the years and maintains its strength and seaI . we noticed that on the aluminum billit pump the shaft was soft aluminum and that almost every one I have seen eventually leaks where the aluminum wears right at the bearing and water seal. Also fine aluminum dust acts as a abrasive and ruins the seal way faster than a oem ever will and contaminated the coolant and bottom end oil as well.
- all it takes is one hard run with a leaky seal to cause major damage in the bottom end and ruin your oil/ tran fluid or whatever you choose to use.
- also the nylon impeller is a high flow impeller witch gets the coolant moving nice.
- apparently billit impellers are designed to move the coolant slower. The idea is that it gives the coolant more time to cool and do its job. Actually doing the opposite when temp reading were observed on the inline temp gauge and laser thermometer pointed at the head.

Maybe there are high flow ones?? With tempered shafts and aluminum that doesn't corrode. I doubt it tho.

It temperature is you concern a bigger rad. Better coolant and a inline cooler is needed. a cool head mod works too.

Also never use a metal or billit water pump gear. The oem nylon one is designed to resist the hot to cold temp changes inside the case and the bill it or stainless versions may chip or loose teeth putting abrasive material in your oil. The nylon if ever failed it would not damage the other metal part that you try so hard to protect.

Please if anyone has different views or opinions please add what you know or heard.

Everyone dose their thing a little different there is no right or wrong choice it's up to you.

This is not a argument either just curious to see what other guys had to say

Thanks for reading

 

My humble apology for dragging up an old thread. I was just scanning the Inet and came across this thread.

We are Mull Engineering, a manufacturer of both a billet water pump and billet drive gear for the Banshee. I wanted to simply take an opportunity to share a few things on these products.

1. There are not any billet water pumps made that utilize Aluminum for the shaft component as that would certainly fail in a short time. All other manufacturers have been using stainless steel for their shafts, which is still much softer than the OEM carbon steel shaft. We actually manufacture ours from a high carbon tool steel, with proper heat treatment, and a high lubricity coating to actually make it better than OEM These shafts are MUCH harder than other stainless shafts and will resist wear just as the OEM component does.

2. I don't know of any manufacture of a billet water pump claiming they move 'less' water, but in fact, in our testing, they all did because they had some design flaws. We saw this as an opportunity to improve the geometry and product with proper computer simulated fluid design to create a pump that actually does move 'more' water than OEM, while removing the concerns of plastic degradation over time. Regarding any corrosion concern, this should never happen in a cooling system as the entire engine and radiator are also Aluminum and a proper antifreeze or coolant additive should be providing the required fluid stabilizers and pump lubricants. Running only straight water is never advised in any cooling system.

3. I know there was certainly some concerns as we brought our billet water pump drive gear to the Banshee market but we have spent countless hours in testing to ensure it was the right move. Our gears employ proprietary processes in the material to resist wear and breakage. To date we have never had one fail or heard of one failing. It could certainly happen but we found that having a reliable drive gear improves overall engine reliability as many have seen the OEM plastic gear fail just from age or simply just some particles floating in the engine, which will cause a rapid overheat condition and usually damage the engine. The billet gear will take that abuse and keep moving water.

We hope only to share our experiences and tested information for thought. We have developed in house tests for our products to ensure they are reliable. Some choose to use only OEM parts, and that is certainly an option every Banshee owner has. But we have developed our parts through insight from in house engine building services and countless customer concerns over the years, and we strive to be a company that provides reliable and accurately described components.


Mull Engineering