Tips - Water Pump Replacement - Documentation/Writeup
11-14-05, 11:54 AM
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tips - Water Pump Replacement - documentation/writeup - 1MB
Installing & Removing the waterpump isn't covered very well, so here's a writeup to compliment what's already been written. Feel free to add your thoughts as well.
This is for 1989-1991 Non-turbo RX-7s. For other years/types check your service manual for differences.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also checkout my other writeups:
Transmission Removal/Install - www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=352505
Speed-bleeder Coolant Flush install - www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=362904
Torn Brake Piston boots replacement - www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=366651
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Key Search Terms: Water Pump, Replace Water Pump, Replacing Water Pump, Remove Water Pump, Removing Water Pump, Water Pump Leak, Leaking Water Pump, Leeking Water Pump, Water Pump Leek, Weep Water Pump, Weap Water Pump, Weep Hole, Weap Hole, leaky water pump, leeky water pump
Setting Your Expectations
For novices & semi-pro mechanics this is a weekend job, Friday night, Saturday, and possibly finishing on Sunday. You DO NOT want to rush this. Yes a basic set of tools plus a few others will work, but there's nothing more annoying than NOT having the right tool for the job. Below I've listed the tools I ended up using.
What's involved
You'll be removing the water pump, waterpump housing, OMP (oil metering pump), Airpump, Alternator, main front pulley, belts, etc...
Tools
For handtools:
- A metric 3/8" and 1/2" socket & drive sets wit 3" & 6" extensions. 1/4 inch wouldn't hurt either.
- 1/2" and 1/4" torque wrenches (you need to measure foot pounds & inch pounds on these bolts/nuts).
- Good screwdriver seat (3 short, long, stubby sizes - 9 total). The best screwdrivers are made from harden metals and have grooves cut in the phillips & fat heads to hold the screws better.
- Metric Wrenches (open & closed ends), preferably ratcheting wrenches (or flexhead ratcheting).
- Vice Grips (largest 3 set), Mechanics Pick Set (optional), Razorblades
- Tap & Die set, and a thread gauge (cleanout the threadlock on the OMP bolt holes)
- Flat style prybar
- Dremel Drill with 4 foot drill bit extension. Mini dremel wire-wheel brush, both flat & cone shaped brushes.
For Sprays:
- WD-40, PB-Blaster, Carb Cleaner, Engine Degreaser, Brakeparts cleaner
- High temp spraypaint (optional)
Other Items:
- Fender & Bumper Covers (scratch protection, you'll need it). Get those at autozone/walmart.
- Portable Ramps (or jack & jackstands). Buy at autozone/walmart
- Threadlock for the OMP bolts. Buy at autozone
- Blue silicon for both waterpump gaskets. Buy at walmart
- 3 New Panel fasteners (you'll break at least two) to hold the radiator fan shroud on. Buy the "panel fastener kit" at jcwhitney.com here (click me)
- Big piece of cardboard to protect the radiator fins
- Painters tape (paper or plastic). Buy at lowes, homedepot.
- 4 gallons 50/50 green coolant. Buy at walmart or autozone.
- Creeper. Buy at autozone or walmart.
Stuff to order
- New waterpump (comes pre-assembled and with associated gaskets). Check around www.mazdatrix.com, www.atkinsrotary.com, and other sites for the best price.
- Radiator fillneck o-ring (if you unbolt the neck on 89-91 rx-7s), part # N350-15-174A. Your local oreillys, Advanced Auto, Pep-boys, etc.. probably has these in their "behind the counter" o-ring kits.
- Radiator drainplug o-ring. Your local O'Reilly’s, Advanced Auto, Pep-boys, etc.. probably has these in their "behind the counter" kits. You'll need size 10mmx2.5mm
- OMP o-ring, Part N350-14-604
General Recommendations
- Take digital pictures of everything before you uninstall stuff. Take pictures as you go.
- Don't leave bolts/nuts loose, re-install them when you take stuff off
- Labels belts, parts, and loose hardware as you take them off
- Stuff coolant hoses & open lines with paper towels. This includes the front cover coolant passage.
- Carefully observe where each belt goes and how it's routed. Familiarize yourself with the belt & pulley setup now and it will save you much head-scratching when re-installing them.
- When you torque a bolt, mark it with a red paint pen so it's easy to spot bolts you missed torqueing down.
- TRIPLE CHECK the factory service manual diagrams, it's easy to confused foot-pounds and inch-pounds. You don't want to strip threads or break a bolt.
- Download the service manual from here:
http://www.teamfc3s.org/main/factory_service_manual/
- Print off the cooling & lubrication system pages you'll need to reference. It's handy to have them readily available.
- When reading the service manual pictures, notice the last set of numbers on each bolt & nut are the US units of ft-lbs or in-lbs. Be sure to NOT confuse the two.
Prepping
- Drive the car up on ramps & put on the fender/nose covers
- Spray PB-Blaster on the plastic under-cover bolts (under the car), fan shroud bolts, fan pulley mounting nuts, starter mounting bolts (front & back), airpump mounting bolts (front & back),
- Remove the lower under-cover.
- From underneath the car, use your big flathead screwdriver to carefully pry loose the three panel fasteners that hold the bottom of the fan shroud.
- Remove the three upper fan shroud bolts.
- Slide that big piece of cardboard between the radiator shroud & radiator before you remove the fan & radiator shroud.
Dis-assembly
- Remove the battery & battery box
- Remove the main air intake piping in FRONT of the airbox. You DO NOT need to remove the airbox or intake manifold piping.
- Unhook the coolant sensor cable and move it out of the way. Unhook the overflow bottle tube from the radiator fill neck.
- With the fan shroud loose and the fan pulley nuts adequately soaked with PB blaster, VERY CAREFULLY loosen the nuts with the 10mm closed wrench. Note if you can't get the closed end on, you're going to have to use the open end. I've tried using a flare nut wrench (partially open ended wrench) with no luck. Just be careful not to strip the nuts.
- Pullout the fan first, then pullout the fan shroud.
NOTE the shroud's a bit tricky to remove. You'll have to work it past upper radiator coolant passage and then out towards the left.
- Loosen all the belts by loosening the alternator & airpump mounting & adjustment bolts. Loosen the power steering & air-conditioning belts by turning 10mm adjustment bolts on top. You may want to spray the adjustment bolt threads with PB-blaster to make them easy to turn.
- You have to remove the main 4 piece pulley to takeoff the belts. Turn the pulley so the first (left most) timing mark aligns with the indicator above the pulley. Take care not to strip the bolts when removing the pulley.
- Once all the belts are off, remove the Alternator. Be careful with the wiring harness connector on the alternator, don't pull on the wiring. Keep pressing the release button & wiggle the harness connector till it comes out. TAKE NOTE of how the alternator adjustment bracket attaches to the waterpump housing and it's general angle. This is important when re-installing the waterpump.
- Before removing the airpump, you'll need to takeoff the hose. Put a little WD-40 on the hose and squeeze the hose clamp with the vicegrips or your fingers. Then remove the airpump.
- Drain the coolant into a bucket by removing the plastic drainplug from the bottom of the radiator. Be careful NOT to strip the plastic head on the drainplug.
- Next remove the upper & lower coolant hose clamps. If the hoses are hard to remove, work your midsized flathead screwdriver underneath the hose. Be careful not to damage the hose. You don't need to remove the heater return hose.
- With the waterpump hosing fully exposed, soak the nuts with PBblaster and remove the nuts & bolts. Be sure to note where the bolts, nuts, and alternator bracket bolts onto.
(Note If the nuts are rusted on, you'll probably end up unscrewing the studs with nuts still attached from the front cover of the engine. If that happens, wait till the waterpump housing is removed, soak the nut in PB-blaster, re-insert the stud, and tighten down just enough to loosen the bolt. The nut should then easily be removed.)
Oil Metering Pump
- Before removing the water pump, those OMP lines (Oil Metering Pump lines) have to be moved. Don't even both with trying to unbolt the lines, take the OMP off completely.
- If the OMP is gunky, clean it with engine degreaser. Inspect the OMP lines to make sure they're not starting to split.
- Remove the three bolts that hold the OMP on. use your 3" extension to get to those back bolts.
- Support the OMP with some string/cabling. Careful with moving the OMP lines not to stress them.
- Stuff the oil passage hole with a paper towel.
- With the OMP out of the way and the bolts & nuts removed from the water pump, grasp the waterpump housing and pull. You may need to wiggle the housing a bit to break it loose.
- Pull the housing 1-2 inches forward and disconnect the throttle body coolant hose.
- Disconnect the wiring harness connector. NOTE this connector is attached with a metal band. Use your mechanics pick set to loosen the band from the connector (see picture below). Loosen the band from the bottom.
NOTE, there is a loose wiring harness connector next to this one. I'm not sure what it connect so, must be for the TII.
Cleaning
Housing & Pump
- Once the housing is off, use some scrub pads and dish detergent to clean it up.
- The new waterpump is coated with an anti-rust agent. Scrub this clean as well.
- Next is the HARD part, cleaning off the old gasket and seal from the waterpump housing. First scrapeoff what you can with a razor blade, careful not to knick the housing. Use the carb cleaner on a rag to wipeoff the glue. YOU MUST REMOVE ALL OF THE GASKET & GLUE from the housing. If you have a dremel, the dremel wire wheel brush will help you bring the gasket areas on the housing to a mirror polish.
- If you still see discoloration on the gasket areas, scrap it with a razor blade to make sure there's no glue left.
- Next it's time to spraypaint the housing & waterpump with your favorite color. Be sure to mask off the bolt holes, weeping holes, gasket areas, pulley mount, bearing areas, and piping where the coolant hoses connect. If you get paint on the gasket areas, clean it off again.
Front Cover
- Before you start cleaning the front cover gasket area, stuff the coolant passages with paper towels so NOTHING can get in there. You don't want to drop razorblades, gasket material, or anything else in the front cover.
- Clean the front cover around the waterpump coolant passages with engine degreaser until it's CLEAN. Also clean around the OMP area.
- Repeat the same process as mentioned above, you want the gasket areas on the front cover free of glue, gasket, and a nice polished finish.
Re-installing
- Make SURE you pull out ALL the paper towels from the hoses, coolant passages, and oil passage.
- Lightly coat the front cover gasket area with blue silicon. Be sure to wipe excess silicon from inside the coolant passages. Install the gasket and align it with the coolant passage holes
- Use blue silicon on the back of the water pump housing.
- Align the waterpump housing and install the wiring harness connector before pushing the waterpump housing back all the way. Be sure the metal band on the harness connector is flush so the connector won't come loose.
- Lightly coat the front of the waterpump housing with blue silicon and install the gasket. Align the gasket with the coolant passages.
- Lightly coat the waterpump with blue silicon and slide it onto the housing. Torque down all the bolts to proper spec EXCEPT the far right bolt. Install the alternator alignment bracket, confirm it's in the right position, and then torque down.
- For all the waterpump bolts & nuts, Mazda didn't specify a torque pattern. I used a random cris-cross pattern. Check the torque 6-8 times for all bolts.
- Let the waterpump sit for a couple of hours so the gasket dressing/silicon can dry.
- Now is the time to install the new metal waterpump pulley studs that came with the waterpump gasket set. Use a bit of WD-40 on them, install them by hand, and use vice-grips to torque down as best you can.
- Re-attach the throttle body coolant line to the back of the water pump before re-installing the airpump. use some WD-40 on the hose so it slides on nicely. Re-attach the hose clamp.
- Re-install the OMP using the new ring. Clean the OMP & housing surfaces beforehand.
- NOTE, you may need to clean the closest OMP bolt hole with a tap & die set as the factory used threadlock I believe. If you're not sure of the threadpitch to tap the hole with, you can use a ruler style threadguage to confirm. You can buy those here: www.boltdepot.com/thread-gauges.aspx
- Use threadlock on the closes OMP hole.
- Begin the re-install process for the Airpump, main pulley, alternator, belts. The 4 piece main pulley is "keyed" so the bolt holes will only align in one direction. Wash any dirt/gunk off the main pulley before re-installing it. Be sure the big washer isn't turned around backwards on the pulley, otherwise the holes will not line up.
- The alternator belt goes on first around the three pulleys, then the airpump belt. The airconditioning & steering belts are next. Refer to the pictures you took if you get confused.
- I tighten the belts down to 1/2 inch of play on the longest part of the belt. Just be sure you check the LONGEST part of the belt, not the closest.
- Finish the re-install process and don't forget to remove the cardboard protecting the radiator. I usually sneek the fan-shroud on between the airbox and airpump.
- It's impossible to check torque on the fan pulley bolts. Tighten them down as best you can, but you should only put 10-12 ft-lbs I believe.
- Before re-attaching the coolant hoses or OMP, be sure you removed the paper towels.
- Use new panel fasteners on the radiator fan shrowd if necessary. Spin the fan and make sure the fan doesn't touch the fan shroud.
BEFORE STARTING
- Double check you have no parts or bolts left over. Be sure you torque all bolts, all coolant hoses are attached and clamped, and the throttle body coolant hose is firmly attached to the back of the water pump.
- Be sure you install the battery correctly and not backwards.
- Install the plastic drainplug with a new rubber o-ring. Install the coolant neck with a new o-ring. Re-attach the overflow bottle tube to the coolant neck.
- fillup the radiator with 50/50 coolant.
- fillup the overflow bottle to 1/2 or 3/4 of total capacity.
Starting
- If you spilled water on the exhaust manifold, expect steam for a while when the car warms up.
- Turn the heater to hot and fan to high.
- Leave the radiator cap off until water begins to overflow and then re-install the cap.
- The pullies will start squeeking after a few seconds, it's not the waterpump bearings going bad.
- Don't be surprised if the "low coolant buzzer & light" start going off when you first start driving the car, it's probably just an air bubbles. You may need to shut-off the car, let it cool, and re-bleed the air from the radiator. Check the overflow bottle to make sure it still has coolant in it.
- Check for leaks or drips.
- You may need to drive the car for a bit to get all the air bubbles out. Keep plenty of coolant in the car should a hose pop-off.
- Once you've confirmed no leaks, keep checking the car for the next 5 days and be sure there are no leaks, the engine cover underneath the car eventually dries, and the overflow bottle level remains fairly constant..
PICTURES
Notice the belt & pulley layout
Notice the OMP is in the way Be careful not to stress the lines when moving it.
Be sure to plug-up the water passage & hoses with towels
Replace that fill-neck o-ring
Put a mirror polish on those gasket surfaces
FSM
This is for 1989-1991 Non-turbo RX-7s. For other years/types check your service manual for differences.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also checkout my other writeups:
Transmission Removal/Install - www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=352505
Speed-bleeder Coolant Flush install - www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=362904
Torn Brake Piston boots replacement - www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=366651
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Key Search Terms: Water Pump, Replace Water Pump, Replacing Water Pump, Remove Water Pump, Removing Water Pump, Water Pump Leak, Leaking Water Pump, Leeking Water Pump, Water Pump Leek, Weep Water Pump, Weap Water Pump, Weep Hole, Weap Hole, leaky water pump, leeky water pump
Setting Your Expectations
For novices & semi-pro mechanics this is a weekend job, Friday night, Saturday, and possibly finishing on Sunday. You DO NOT want to rush this. Yes a basic set of tools plus a few others will work, but there's nothing more annoying than NOT having the right tool for the job. Below I've listed the tools I ended up using.
What's involved
You'll be removing the water pump, waterpump housing, OMP (oil metering pump), Airpump, Alternator, main front pulley, belts, etc...
Tools
For handtools:
- A metric 3/8" and 1/2" socket & drive sets wit 3" & 6" extensions. 1/4 inch wouldn't hurt either.
- 1/2" and 1/4" torque wrenches (you need to measure foot pounds & inch pounds on these bolts/nuts).
- Good screwdriver seat (3 short, long, stubby sizes - 9 total). The best screwdrivers are made from harden metals and have grooves cut in the phillips & fat heads to hold the screws better.
- Metric Wrenches (open & closed ends), preferably ratcheting wrenches (or flexhead ratcheting).
- Vice Grips (largest 3 set), Mechanics Pick Set (optional), Razorblades
- Tap & Die set, and a thread gauge (cleanout the threadlock on the OMP bolt holes)
- Flat style prybar
- Dremel Drill with 4 foot drill bit extension. Mini dremel wire-wheel brush, both flat & cone shaped brushes.
For Sprays:
- WD-40, PB-Blaster, Carb Cleaner, Engine Degreaser, Brakeparts cleaner
- High temp spraypaint (optional)
Other Items:
- Fender & Bumper Covers (scratch protection, you'll need it). Get those at autozone/walmart.
- Portable Ramps (or jack & jackstands). Buy at autozone/walmart
- Threadlock for the OMP bolts. Buy at autozone
- Blue silicon for both waterpump gaskets. Buy at walmart
- 3 New Panel fasteners (you'll break at least two) to hold the radiator fan shroud on. Buy the "panel fastener kit" at jcwhitney.com here (click me)
- Big piece of cardboard to protect the radiator fins
- Painters tape (paper or plastic). Buy at lowes, homedepot.
- 4 gallons 50/50 green coolant. Buy at walmart or autozone.
- Creeper. Buy at autozone or walmart.
Stuff to order
- New waterpump (comes pre-assembled and with associated gaskets). Check around www.mazdatrix.com, www.atkinsrotary.com, and other sites for the best price.
- Radiator fillneck o-ring (if you unbolt the neck on 89-91 rx-7s), part # N350-15-174A. Your local oreillys, Advanced Auto, Pep-boys, etc.. probably has these in their "behind the counter" o-ring kits.
- Radiator drainplug o-ring. Your local O'Reilly’s, Advanced Auto, Pep-boys, etc.. probably has these in their "behind the counter" kits. You'll need size 10mmx2.5mm
- OMP o-ring, Part N350-14-604
General Recommendations
- Take digital pictures of everything before you uninstall stuff. Take pictures as you go.
- Don't leave bolts/nuts loose, re-install them when you take stuff off
- Labels belts, parts, and loose hardware as you take them off
- Stuff coolant hoses & open lines with paper towels. This includes the front cover coolant passage.
- Carefully observe where each belt goes and how it's routed. Familiarize yourself with the belt & pulley setup now and it will save you much head-scratching when re-installing them.
- When you torque a bolt, mark it with a red paint pen so it's easy to spot bolts you missed torqueing down.
- TRIPLE CHECK the factory service manual diagrams, it's easy to confused foot-pounds and inch-pounds. You don't want to strip threads or break a bolt.
- Download the service manual from here:
http://www.teamfc3s.org/main/factory_service_manual/
- Print off the cooling & lubrication system pages you'll need to reference. It's handy to have them readily available.
- When reading the service manual pictures, notice the last set of numbers on each bolt & nut are the US units of ft-lbs or in-lbs. Be sure to NOT confuse the two.
Prepping
- Drive the car up on ramps & put on the fender/nose covers
- Spray PB-Blaster on the plastic under-cover bolts (under the car), fan shroud bolts, fan pulley mounting nuts, starter mounting bolts (front & back), airpump mounting bolts (front & back),
- Remove the lower under-cover.
- From underneath the car, use your big flathead screwdriver to carefully pry loose the three panel fasteners that hold the bottom of the fan shroud.
- Remove the three upper fan shroud bolts.
- Slide that big piece of cardboard between the radiator shroud & radiator before you remove the fan & radiator shroud.
Dis-assembly
- Remove the battery & battery box
- Remove the main air intake piping in FRONT of the airbox. You DO NOT need to remove the airbox or intake manifold piping.
- Unhook the coolant sensor cable and move it out of the way. Unhook the overflow bottle tube from the radiator fill neck.
- With the fan shroud loose and the fan pulley nuts adequately soaked with PB blaster, VERY CAREFULLY loosen the nuts with the 10mm closed wrench. Note if you can't get the closed end on, you're going to have to use the open end. I've tried using a flare nut wrench (partially open ended wrench) with no luck. Just be careful not to strip the nuts.
- Pullout the fan first, then pullout the fan shroud.
NOTE the shroud's a bit tricky to remove. You'll have to work it past upper radiator coolant passage and then out towards the left.
- Loosen all the belts by loosening the alternator & airpump mounting & adjustment bolts. Loosen the power steering & air-conditioning belts by turning 10mm adjustment bolts on top. You may want to spray the adjustment bolt threads with PB-blaster to make them easy to turn.
- You have to remove the main 4 piece pulley to takeoff the belts. Turn the pulley so the first (left most) timing mark aligns with the indicator above the pulley. Take care not to strip the bolts when removing the pulley.
- Once all the belts are off, remove the Alternator. Be careful with the wiring harness connector on the alternator, don't pull on the wiring. Keep pressing the release button & wiggle the harness connector till it comes out. TAKE NOTE of how the alternator adjustment bracket attaches to the waterpump housing and it's general angle. This is important when re-installing the waterpump.
- Before removing the airpump, you'll need to takeoff the hose. Put a little WD-40 on the hose and squeeze the hose clamp with the vicegrips or your fingers. Then remove the airpump.
- Drain the coolant into a bucket by removing the plastic drainplug from the bottom of the radiator. Be careful NOT to strip the plastic head on the drainplug.
- Next remove the upper & lower coolant hose clamps. If the hoses are hard to remove, work your midsized flathead screwdriver underneath the hose. Be careful not to damage the hose. You don't need to remove the heater return hose.
- With the waterpump hosing fully exposed, soak the nuts with PBblaster and remove the nuts & bolts. Be sure to note where the bolts, nuts, and alternator bracket bolts onto.
(Note If the nuts are rusted on, you'll probably end up unscrewing the studs with nuts still attached from the front cover of the engine. If that happens, wait till the waterpump housing is removed, soak the nut in PB-blaster, re-insert the stud, and tighten down just enough to loosen the bolt. The nut should then easily be removed.)
Oil Metering Pump
- Before removing the water pump, those OMP lines (Oil Metering Pump lines) have to be moved. Don't even both with trying to unbolt the lines, take the OMP off completely.
- If the OMP is gunky, clean it with engine degreaser. Inspect the OMP lines to make sure they're not starting to split.
- Remove the three bolts that hold the OMP on. use your 3" extension to get to those back bolts.
- Support the OMP with some string/cabling. Careful with moving the OMP lines not to stress them.
- Stuff the oil passage hole with a paper towel.
- With the OMP out of the way and the bolts & nuts removed from the water pump, grasp the waterpump housing and pull. You may need to wiggle the housing a bit to break it loose.
- Pull the housing 1-2 inches forward and disconnect the throttle body coolant hose.
- Disconnect the wiring harness connector. NOTE this connector is attached with a metal band. Use your mechanics pick set to loosen the band from the connector (see picture below). Loosen the band from the bottom.
NOTE, there is a loose wiring harness connector next to this one. I'm not sure what it connect so, must be for the TII.
Cleaning
Housing & Pump
- Once the housing is off, use some scrub pads and dish detergent to clean it up.
- The new waterpump is coated with an anti-rust agent. Scrub this clean as well.
- Next is the HARD part, cleaning off the old gasket and seal from the waterpump housing. First scrapeoff what you can with a razor blade, careful not to knick the housing. Use the carb cleaner on a rag to wipeoff the glue. YOU MUST REMOVE ALL OF THE GASKET & GLUE from the housing. If you have a dremel, the dremel wire wheel brush will help you bring the gasket areas on the housing to a mirror polish.
- If you still see discoloration on the gasket areas, scrap it with a razor blade to make sure there's no glue left.
- Next it's time to spraypaint the housing & waterpump with your favorite color. Be sure to mask off the bolt holes, weeping holes, gasket areas, pulley mount, bearing areas, and piping where the coolant hoses connect. If you get paint on the gasket areas, clean it off again.
Front Cover
- Before you start cleaning the front cover gasket area, stuff the coolant passages with paper towels so NOTHING can get in there. You don't want to drop razorblades, gasket material, or anything else in the front cover.
- Clean the front cover around the waterpump coolant passages with engine degreaser until it's CLEAN. Also clean around the OMP area.
- Repeat the same process as mentioned above, you want the gasket areas on the front cover free of glue, gasket, and a nice polished finish.
Re-installing
- Make SURE you pull out ALL the paper towels from the hoses, coolant passages, and oil passage.
- Lightly coat the front cover gasket area with blue silicon. Be sure to wipe excess silicon from inside the coolant passages. Install the gasket and align it with the coolant passage holes
- Use blue silicon on the back of the water pump housing.
- Align the waterpump housing and install the wiring harness connector before pushing the waterpump housing back all the way. Be sure the metal band on the harness connector is flush so the connector won't come loose.
- Lightly coat the front of the waterpump housing with blue silicon and install the gasket. Align the gasket with the coolant passages.
- Lightly coat the waterpump with blue silicon and slide it onto the housing. Torque down all the bolts to proper spec EXCEPT the far right bolt. Install the alternator alignment bracket, confirm it's in the right position, and then torque down.
- For all the waterpump bolts & nuts, Mazda didn't specify a torque pattern. I used a random cris-cross pattern. Check the torque 6-8 times for all bolts.
- Let the waterpump sit for a couple of hours so the gasket dressing/silicon can dry.
- Now is the time to install the new metal waterpump pulley studs that came with the waterpump gasket set. Use a bit of WD-40 on them, install them by hand, and use vice-grips to torque down as best you can.
- Re-attach the throttle body coolant line to the back of the water pump before re-installing the airpump. use some WD-40 on the hose so it slides on nicely. Re-attach the hose clamp.
- Re-install the OMP using the new ring. Clean the OMP & housing surfaces beforehand.
- NOTE, you may need to clean the closest OMP bolt hole with a tap & die set as the factory used threadlock I believe. If you're not sure of the threadpitch to tap the hole with, you can use a ruler style threadguage to confirm. You can buy those here: www.boltdepot.com/thread-gauges.aspx
- Use threadlock on the closes OMP hole.
- Begin the re-install process for the Airpump, main pulley, alternator, belts. The 4 piece main pulley is "keyed" so the bolt holes will only align in one direction. Wash any dirt/gunk off the main pulley before re-installing it. Be sure the big washer isn't turned around backwards on the pulley, otherwise the holes will not line up.
- The alternator belt goes on first around the three pulleys, then the airpump belt. The airconditioning & steering belts are next. Refer to the pictures you took if you get confused.
- I tighten the belts down to 1/2 inch of play on the longest part of the belt. Just be sure you check the LONGEST part of the belt, not the closest.
- Finish the re-install process and don't forget to remove the cardboard protecting the radiator. I usually sneek the fan-shroud on between the airbox and airpump.
- It's impossible to check torque on the fan pulley bolts. Tighten them down as best you can, but you should only put 10-12 ft-lbs I believe.
- Before re-attaching the coolant hoses or OMP, be sure you removed the paper towels.
- Use new panel fasteners on the radiator fan shrowd if necessary. Spin the fan and make sure the fan doesn't touch the fan shroud.
BEFORE STARTING
- Double check you have no parts or bolts left over. Be sure you torque all bolts, all coolant hoses are attached and clamped, and the throttle body coolant hose is firmly attached to the back of the water pump.
- Be sure you install the battery correctly and not backwards.
- Install the plastic drainplug with a new rubber o-ring. Install the coolant neck with a new o-ring. Re-attach the overflow bottle tube to the coolant neck.
- fillup the radiator with 50/50 coolant.
- fillup the overflow bottle to 1/2 or 3/4 of total capacity.
Starting
- If you spilled water on the exhaust manifold, expect steam for a while when the car warms up.
- Turn the heater to hot and fan to high.
- Leave the radiator cap off until water begins to overflow and then re-install the cap.
- The pullies will start squeeking after a few seconds, it's not the waterpump bearings going bad.
- Don't be surprised if the "low coolant buzzer & light" start going off when you first start driving the car, it's probably just an air bubbles. You may need to shut-off the car, let it cool, and re-bleed the air from the radiator. Check the overflow bottle to make sure it still has coolant in it.
- Check for leaks or drips.
- You may need to drive the car for a bit to get all the air bubbles out. Keep plenty of coolant in the car should a hose pop-off.
- Once you've confirmed no leaks, keep checking the car for the next 5 days and be sure there are no leaks, the engine cover underneath the car eventually dries, and the overflow bottle level remains fairly constant..
PICTURES
Notice the belt & pulley layout
Notice the OMP is in the way Be careful not to stress the lines when moving it.
Be sure to plug-up the water passage & hoses with towels
Replace that fill-neck o-ring
Put a mirror polish on those gasket surfaces
FSM
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streetlegal?
New Member RX-7 Technical
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03-17-22 02:46 PM
