Had to replace my water pump again at 295K. It was a gates that I had put in at about 160K. So I got about 135K on the gates pump. I put in another gates pump and this time I put in a new Victor Reinz gasket, which is the metal / rubber combination. I also replaced the viscous fan clutch since I was in there. I did not replace the belt, but I carry a spare and I can change the belt now in about 5 minutes from under the van. I was losing coolant and had to keep topping it off once a week. I couldn't exactly see where the coolant was leaking, but assumed that it was the water pump, but I tightened up all of the hose clamps on the system just to make sure. I used the same approach that I noted earlier in this thread, removing the top bar across the radiators and completely removing the fan shroud and then taking the pump out with the manifold attached. Lots of room to do this and reassemble and then 1 gal of G05 and almost 1 gal of DI water. I actually cracked the top of the fan shroud when removing it, so I taped it up with some special glass fiber reinforced duct tape after I put it back in. I had a lot of oil all over the front portion of the engine, not sure where it is coming from, so I degreased and washed the engine off as best as I could. I'm not really losing much for oil, so I'm not sure where it is all coming from, but I hadn't cleaned the engine off in about 3 years. I just threaded the bolt into the idler pulley once the pump was installed. Just used my ratchet since I had so much room.
Assuming the pump works like the last one, that should be the last one for the van, if I can get it up to 400K miles that will likely be it. Engine is working great, but the body is going to become a rust bucket and I'm not up for all the work or $ it is going to take to fix it.
Chris