Water pump OEM FORD or GRAF

Graf is fine, I've put a bunch of them in 240s over the years, none have failed yet.

Graf is good.

I ended up going with the water pump here: Graf Water Pump . There is no difference in engine performance or fuel economy with the new pump. But it will take longer to warm up, especially in colder weather.

I personally replaced the water pump on my Tiguan with a Graf aluminum pump. The only issue I've had was the rubber o-ring on the temp sensor leaking. I replaced all the rubber seals with Rein branded ones and no more leaks.

I finished the water pump replacement with the Graf Aluminium pump. Nice pump. As per Qmulus recommendation, I replaced the coolant sensor Oring with OEM. While in the process, I replaced the oil filter housing along with a new oring for it.

As for the aluminum one made by/marketed as Graf, there are a few issues in my experience. First, the rubber gasket from the housing to the block is known to fail by tearing where the link in the gasket between the two passage connect. I think this is because the gasket does not precise fit in the channel for the seal machined into the housing. On the one that just put on an engine I just put in my '12 Tiguan, I cut that link out, effectively making two seals and relieving the tension in the seal. Next, the O ring seal supplied for the temp sensor is known to disintegrate, so I got a factory seal. Last, if your engine has a late water pump currently with the clip that holds in the temp sensor, the two mounting bolts to the block at the sensor will be too short for the aluminum pump housing, so you need to get the bolts for an early water pump. Honestly, as long as you don't have any oil leaks, the latest factory water pump is fine. I generally don't trust aftermarket water pumps, as I have had too many fail over the years (not on these engines, just in general). I used this Graf aluminum water pump as a test. The quality seems good, but time will tell.

Pretty sure this is the motor that needs the engine dropped to do waterpump and timing components. Bad bad design

The 3.5 5th generation Explorer has an internal water pump driven by the timing chain. It’s an enormous pain to change requiring significant disassembly (nearly 12 hours of labor) and generally includes replacing the timing chain in the process since you’re already in there, plus when it fails it can easily mix the coolant with the oil and destroy the engine, all that’s keeping them apart is a little seal.

graf has failed on me twice prematurely

I just had to deal with a Graf pump failing at 6000 miles on my CRUA. Everything is low quality trash now.