Hey guys, I just wanted to make sure my thinking was correct here. I already did some searching like a good boy .

background: my car hasn't ran in 2.5 yrs (argh) but we're close! tonight I decided to put the coolant in and cross my fingers. well that didn't work as a small leak developed at the base of the water pump. Motor was ported and rebuilt by the late great guitarjunkie Dave.

SO, I first thought the leak was comming from the water pump housing's seal, between the two bottom 10mm bolts. Upon closer inspection it seems that there are 2 small holes in the housing, one on top and one underneath(pic below). I believe coolant is seeping out of the bottom hole, and then dripping off the bottom of the housing.

Question: does this mean my waterpump needs replacing? I really hope that's all it is. when you rotate the waterpump pulley, you can see something (bearings?) rotating through the small holes, is this normal?


Thanks for any help, I hope it is as simple as this.

 

Yup. That's a drain hole for the WP seal so that if it leaks a small amount of coolant, it isn't trapped in the bearings. When the leakage gets to be enough that you can see it weeping any significant amount of coolant, the seal has worn/hardened too much, and you will need a reman/new WP. What you see through the holes rotating is the WP shaft. That is normal.

Dave

 

cool. thanks for that.