2005 Yukon Denali 6.0 water pump

Yes, 6.0 Yukon XL Denali 1500 is a different part number than 6.0 Yukon XL 1500, CarQuest guy had them side by side with my original one, couldn't see any difference. And he didn't have the rubber gasket that goes around the thermostat either (thermostat goes into the water pump itself, so must be transfered over or a new one purchased). Yes, a standard type O-ring and a standard type gasket came with the water pump, but not the rubber gasket I needed, see below, and I was too timid/chicken/smart to try to make do with the traditional gasket only. When CarQuest told me yesterday that it wasn't generally available, I took that as fact, and it's not so. But how would I know if there was an update from GM (like happened on my old mechanical fuel pump for the V6 in my 1984 Cherokee, where GM or someone finally engineered a thicker and square cross section O-ring to stop the leakage there, former O-ring just looked like it wasn't thick enough to squish). OK, photos below, like Earl taught me.

First, before starting, just with plastic cover air intake off.
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt211/Cussboy/DSC03272.jpg

Here's the the sucky GM hose clamps. Apparently there's a hook so they can be installed "open" without a tool, but this prevented me from opening it enough to slide the lower radiator hose off, and I cut my finger because of that (no photo of the cut).
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt211/Cussboy/DSC03278.jpg

This (to me) shows the leakage.
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt211/Cussboy/DSC03276.jpg

The engine with the water pump off.
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt211/Cussboy/DSC03274.jpg

These are the parts I took off after the air intake. You can see the thermostat with its special rubber gasket/slotted O-ring.
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt211/Cussboy/DSC03273.jpg

Here's that special rubber O-ring/gasket; it's slotted to it fits snug around the thermostat rim. There's a tang for indexing this in the water outlet pipe, the tang lines up with the little flex pin/bleed pin.
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt211/Cussboy/DSC03280.jpg

New water pump bolted on, tensioner, thermostat, and water outlet not yet installed. see that the thermostat bolts into the water pump, unlike engines I've seen before.
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt211/Cussboy/DSC03277.jpg

And here's the Weber grill that was given to me, and I cut its legs shorter to make it into a portable backyard fire pit ($2.50 for set of rubber "feet" for the aluminum tubes). Mrs. Cusser says they are romantic, and we have a real one up north, so now we have one here.
http://i613.photobucket.com/albums/tt211/Cussboy/DSC03267.jpg

Nicely done. Happy holidays with your new grill!