Charlie

Does anyone know the year the updated water pump with the belt guard rail became available?

Techno Duck

As far as i know, all cars produced after July in 1986 came with the updated waterpump.

Porsche-O-Phile

There's also a Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) issued by Porsche indicating that all early cars that originally had the water pump without the stud for the guardrail should have them upgraded. I imagine there are very few still out there that haven't had this done; if yours is among them, I strongly recommend doing it - it's quite easy, just order the later style water pump and if necessary, the guard & two 10mm nuts that hold it on (they're not standard, they have a little circular "riser" cast into them that fits into the loop on the guard). The cost of the entire guard assembly new shouldn't be more than $20 or $30 - including the special nuts.

jonnybgood

Paragon talks about this upgrade on their website if you want more info.