Hello everyone,

Got a broken water pump housing stud. I'm working on a T2 and was going to replace the housing because I got that full housing, pump, thermostat set (and because the housing was pretty ugly anyways). I got all of the nuts off, detached the hoses, sensors, and any bolts that might be in the way. Pretty confident it would slide out.

Wouldn't budge. I took a small sledgehammer to the back of it (with a wooden block in the way, of course), try prying it off with a crowbar, and eventually it started wiggling, though in a weird way. It looked like it was pivoting on the right pair of studs. 2 cans of PB Blaster, half a can of CRC Freeze-Off, a lot of expletives, and a second pair of eyes later, I found that the upper righthand stud was chemically bonded to the housing somehow. I tried putting two nuts on the end of the stud, cranked them against each other, and then used a 2 foot long cheater bar to try and twist the stud out of the block (and crack the stud loose from the housing). The threaded part predictably popped off, leaving me with a stub poking its head out of the housing. Luckily, this is still enough space to use pliers on it.

So at the suggestion of a friend, I went and got a MAP torch to heat the housing and try to pry it out that way. I cooked the stud for 10ish seconds, though stopped when I saw the gaskets smoking a bit. Tried the pliers, no luck.

So, any suggestions? The torch is this Bernzomatic TS8000 thing which is supposedly extremely powerful, so I was concerned about deforming the block. If I use it for, say, 30 seconds, am I at risk of destroying anything? Are there any other possible methods of getting out this stud short of drilling it? I'll include a picture.

(on a random note, I think I accidentally burned off the coating on the turbo oil line)

 

Take the Waterpump housing all the way off and replace that stud.
The stud goes right through the waterpump housing and connects to the iron.
You can see it clearly in your pic where the stud sits.(ends up).

 

Since your unable to pull out the waterpump housing, cut the housing with a dremel to loose it out where it's stuck on the stud! You can also made multiple hole with a drill on the housing to eventualy break the top of the housing where the stuck stud is. Then slide out the housing and you will have plenty of room and a long stud to get grip on with vise grip! If you can, use 2 vise grip at the same time!

 

I wouldn't get too crazy with the heat. I think stopping when you started smelling gasket smoking was a good idea. You might be able to push it a bit more.

 

It's time to get medieval on it. Use a pike. Just kidding. Axe.

 

It might come off if you take the hose off at the back,the sensor at the back and the hose for the turbo at the lower rad hose location off.
Smack..and report back..

 

Thanks everyone. Like I said, everything's disconnected and I've tried whacking it, but no luck. A friend of mine is still looking for his angle grinder, so we'll start hacking up the housing when he digs that out. My motor mounts are crap and they rock more than a seesaw with the transmission out, so I'll pass on the axe suggestion.

I have one of those complete Atkins Rotary gasket/o-ring sets and only intended on using the ones for the engine peripherals, emissions systems, the water pump housing, and the (leaking) oil pan. Should I replace the front cover gasket or anything else for that matter?

Also, I've been looking around to see if I can find a set of stainless steel studs to replace the crapped water pump housing ones. I've read that it's M8x1.25 and roughly 85-90mm long. Does anybody have a specific number for the length? Grainger seems to have the studs, but either too short (80) or too long (95mm)

 

When I was replacing studs I just bought a length of threaded rod and cut to size.

 

So I took the angle grinder to the housing and off it came! Well, it wasn't without a hitch. I accidentally clipped part of the mating surface. Pic below.

Does this really warrant JB Weld/RTV or should I be able to just slap on a new gasket and be done with it? There's still a full, uncompromised seal, but i dunno, maybe the housing won't apply pressure evenly to the gasket and it won't seal right. Or maybe I'm just being pedantic. Suggestions?

 

It doesn't look too bad from here, maybe 1mm of material missing. A little RTV will take care of that. Something you might want to do is spread a thin coat of RTV on both of the gasket mating surfaces. I had a few leaks at where the pump met the housing untill I did this and it worked like a charm.

 

Okay, I'll try that then. Do you suggest a specific type? I tend to use permatex ultra black on everything.

Slightly unrelated note: I also got the shims and stainless steel threaded rod to cut to size. Whoot, progress

 

I use "The Right Stuff" by Permatex.You gotta take a hammer to the part if ya want it off again!

That area is higher than anything that the gasket seals so in theory it should be OK,especially with a good slathering of gasket goop.
That part which is under that threaded portion will seal first,the Goop will fill the part above the threaded hole.

 

I find the best way to remove a broken stud is to weld a nut onto the end. The heat helps loosen it, and the nut is easier to grab.

A little rtv on the gasket should seal that without problem. We always use copper RTV because of the extra temp rating. Hylomar is my personal favorite, but can be hard to find sometimes.

If you need some mounts let me know, I'll give you a bit of a deal to balance out the bad luck with the stud.