new water pump in- old one was rusted to hell and barely able to be turned by hand. Impeller had just started the death wobble from the looks of the block, couple of scuff marks but nothing major.
Installed the Machter pump from Ebay but cracked it. Combination of me tightening it too much and a fault in the casting I suspect.
Luckily Supercheap had a Gates one in stock, so that went in and now she's running perf. Would recommend the Gates pump every time, just felt like a much better quality unit than the Machter.
Engine is running about 100rpm lower now at idle and across the range, was sitting at 2200rpm at 100ks in 5th, now just around 2000 rpm. So it definitely isn't working as hard as before.
Also put in my KYB shocks, turns out the monroes that were in Are dead. No movement in them at all. Can pull them out but takes a fair bit of effort.
Ute sounds and feels much happier now