Water pump life not great

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KJowner

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Antifreeze types are not all compatible, I think the petrol is the same as the diesel and uses HOAT not OAT or old school Antifreeze, don't mix them it makes a sludge that blocks the cooling system.
The manual should give you a part number for the correct Antifreeze, find an equivalent if the correct stuff isn't available, I use G05 in my diesel but check your book.
I'd get the hose out and take some hoses off and flush the engine, radiator and heater matrix out before you do anything else, then replace the thermostat and fill with water, run the engine and see what happens, make sure you bleed all the trapped air out. I'm not familiar with the v6 petrol engine, I have seen other engines that have had the impeller drop off the pump shaft but it's not common.
The radiator may be blocked, check it to see if it's all hot (stop the engine if you don't have an infrared thermometer!)
Check the system isn't pressurising excessively, sadly if its already been overheated there is a good chance a head gasket has gone.
If you get lucky and it's OK after it's clean out then dump the water and refill with the correct coolant & demineralised water mix.
 

DadOSix

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just to add a few things to KJOwner’s ideas:

1- it may well be the water pump. Anything this old, with the original pump, could indeed be the impeller eaten away thru corrosion of the coolant was not changed regularly. These things get a bit acidic / basic depending on the type of coolant. This is especially important if OAT is mixed with HOAT. It does indeed cause a cooling system sludge and can plug the thing up.

2- the ‘stat’ - use only a mopar stat, and make sure it is installed in the correct way with regard to coolant flow and the ‘bleeder’ valve on the stat itself.

You can also get overheat due to a bad reservoir tank and / or bad pressure cap. My 06 had a hairline crack on the return from the radiator and was blowing coolant all over the engine.

just throwing ideas here as you have not given a lot of detail about the circumstances surrounding the over-heat issue.
 
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