I pulled the old water pump on my 340 due to a leak that I found between the engine and the water pump housing. When I pulled the part off, this is what I found.
What could cause the pump to scrape against the housing like this?
I bought a new pump when I bought a new gasket set, but I was not aware of this issue. I was just expecting to change all of the gaskets and I thought I might as well throw a new pump in it while I had it all apart.

Thanks

That wasn't making any noise ?

I agree with RR not pressed on far enough.Ive had a few at work do the same thing.As much as that rubbed it should not have turned very free when installed.I always turn a replacement by hand to make sure it turns free and dosent make noise.That had to be pretty noisy.Rocky

The first thought is the impleller is not pressed on far enough but look again at the wear pattern , everything is hitting the housing including the shaft , if it were just a case of the pump not being pressed on far enough you wouldn't see the shaft contact mark in the center .

I had a noise at cold startup last Fall but I was having transmission issues and assumed that the tranny was at fault. Then on the last couple of drives as I was pulling it into the garage, I could hear a light squeal/noise but I could not pin point where it was coming from. As soon as I pulled this off, I assumed that it was my squeal/noise that I have been hearing of late.
I will pre-assemble the new pump to see if it feels free and does not make contact.

EDIT: This pump was on the engine for 8+ years until yesterday.

Thank you all.

You now have the perfect clearance. If the pump is fine, I probably would not change anything.

The shaft was into the housing as well, so the vane pressed into the shaft was not the problem here.

I have found that with JY engines removed from front end crash.

I have had bearing go bad and wobble eating the t-cover some.

could be as simple as that pump got drop somewhere from rebuild to parts house.

rebuild could have had a fatty with a beer at lunch with it being a afternoon rebuilt pump.

what you need to check is the thickness at the deepest groove/grooves to see how much meat is left in the cover.

I had a steel wire someone put in a lower rad hose that rusted to pieces, wraped around the impeller then cut a nic groove in the cove til it cut a hole right thru it.

glad I did a comp/leak down test and ruled out blown head gaskets first. I was thinking t-cover gasket or intake gaskets going into it.

I wager that was the cold start you heard thinking it was trans related.

I have a pump the bearing will sqeel when the colling system is empty and fired up dry. i will get to it someday. this looks like the motovation i need to replace the pump as i do the cam swap this weekend.. i work another 40 bux into the cam swap budget upt o 570$ now

Simple solution,replace the pump and don't lose sleep over it !!

The new pump showed 5/32 clearance without a gasket installed. The new pump is on and thanks for everyone's help.