Just did a coolant flush and radiator hose replacement, and the water pump starts leaking. Just my luck. I've got a new pump and gasket on order. I looked in the shop manual to get an idea of what I'd have to do, and it's rather vauge. Any helpfull suggestions before I dig in? I'm about to move 800 miles away and need the FD running as good as possible.

 

It took me about an hour to change it (started leaking right after I put in my new motor). You'll probably need to take out the intake/IC in order to gain access. The water pump belt and pulley need to come off (4, 10mm bolts). The alternator support bracket is attached via one of the water pump bolts, so this needs to be moved out of the way. I had to actually remove the alternator and then the bracket (the bracket is kind of a pain, but you can wiggle it loose once you remove all the attaching nuts/bolts). FYI, there are also some "clips" bolted on to some of the other water pump nuts (these clips hold the OMP lines and wires in place). There are about 8 or so nuts holding the waterpump in place (some are 10mm and some are 12mm). Remove these and carefully guide out the waterpump. Replace the gasket and put the new waterpump back in. Then bolt everything back together. Make sure you use the right torque specs for the pump nuts/bolts.

Hope that helps a bit.
-Rob

 

Thanks. Should I use any rtv on the gasket?

 

Nope. Ray @ Malloy will let ya know exactly what you need.

 

Be really careful around those oil metering lines. They can be very brittle. I broke one by barely moving it, while removing my water pump housing, and had to take just about the whole motor apart just to replace them.

 

Got the new gasket on, after spending over an hour cleaning the old one off. Put it all back together, using the factory manual torque specs, and she leaks. I have now commenced adding more torque to the bolts on the pump and the thermostat housing. Take all the piping off, add a little more, put it back together, check for leaks. Repeat process. Not fun.

 

I'm not sure going beyond the factory torque specs is a wise idea. Those specs are there for a reason, and also to keep you from stripping the bolts. If you torqued them to spec and it's still leaking, I'd beat there's another problem somewhere.

 

make sur it is clean. if the surfaces are pitted some rtv will do you. are you sure about your torque settings? you did not read the wrong units??