Porsche Engine Water Pump and Thermostat Kit - Pierburg/Wahler 996WTRPMKT6

This kit from the Porsche team at FCP Euro is the ultimate water pump upgrade to increase the efficiency of the cooling system on your M96 powered Porsche.

In this kit, we've included an OE Pierburg water pump from the 996 Turbo/GT3 Mezger block. This pump features a composite impeller, as well as a smaller pulley than the original M96 style water pump. A smaller pulley makes for faster rotation of the pump, resulting in increased coolant flow up to the radiators located at the front of the vehicle. This high flow upgraded pump paired with a low temp OE thermostat from Wahler gives you the ultimate setup to protect your M96 from overheating during spirited driving and track days. For the Porsche enthusiast that enjoys a canyon carve, a backroads blast, or a track day, this kit is a great choice to keep engine temperatures under control.

We recommend using an OE-style water pump, featuring a composite impeller for most M96 applications. The clearance between the aluminum block and the impeller blades on these motors is very small. If there were to be any misalignment pertaining to installation or bearing failure, metal impeller blades would do significantly more damage to your engine than a composite impeller blade.

Plastic impeller blades present their own issues of degradation, leading to pieces of impeller to be sent through your car's cooling system. In the worst case scenario, this impeller blade can make it through the cooling jackets in the head, causing a hotspot and potential cracking. To solve for this, we recommend a service interval of 3-4 years, or 50,000-60,000 miles (whichever comes first) for a composite impeller water pump.

M96 engines are plagued by higher temperatures in cylinders 5 and 6 due to a lack of fresh coolant flow to that section of the engine. If not addressed, this often results in localized hot spots, causing excessive wear to the cylinder walls from oil film breakdown. A lower temp thermostat starts circulating coolant through the system earlier, beginning at a lower temperature. This effect combined with a higher flow rate of coolant from the Mezger style pump gives your car a lower propensity to overheat in the first place.

If bore score and cylinder temperatures concern you as an M96 owner, we recommend using Liqui-Moly MoS2 with your choice of our high quality oils to protect that thrust side cylinder wall.

Please note that in 40-50 degree F conditions, the car may take slightly longer to warm up. Please be conscious of engine operating temperature before operating the engine above 4 thousand RPMs.