Water pump about to explode...
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Mar 2001
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From: San Francisco CA
St. Jude Donor '07
Water pump about to explode...
It's always gotta be something, huh? Before it was just a slight leak, now it's slinging coolant all over the place, so I'll just replace it. Tips? Tricks? Advice?
Team Owner
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 32,519
Likes: 1
From: central America
St. Jude Donor '08-'09
Lots of advice here:
Drain the radiator (you might as well, most of it will come out anyway.)
Use this time to put on new hoses, good precaustionary. New thermostat too if you've got the time (plus they're cheap.)
Loosen belts ( ps and alt, maybe a/c too, I'm not sure since I have a non-a/c car)
remove nuts holding fan cluctch on (four of them) and remove the pulley on WP. You many have to pull fan shroud off, depends on space, but I wouldn't if you don't have too. Pull the four bolts holding the WP on, and remove wp. Remove 4 studs out of WP pulley, you'll need them for the new one. Make sure you take WP with you to parts store, as not just any wp will fit because its a SBC.
Paint the new wp sbc orange and reinstall, reverse of taking it off.
Prob a 2-3 hour job, depending on rust and beer consumption. good luck.
trw
Drain the radiator (you might as well, most of it will come out anyway.)
Use this time to put on new hoses, good precaustionary. New thermostat too if you've got the time (plus they're cheap.)
Loosen belts ( ps and alt, maybe a/c too, I'm not sure since I have a non-a/c car)
remove nuts holding fan cluctch on (four of them) and remove the pulley on WP. You many have to pull fan shroud off, depends on space, but I wouldn't if you don't have too. Pull the four bolts holding the WP on, and remove wp. Remove 4 studs out of WP pulley, you'll need them for the new one. Make sure you take WP with you to parts store, as not just any wp will fit because its a SBC.
Paint the new wp sbc orange and reinstall, reverse of taking it off.
Prob a 2-3 hour job, depending on rust and beer consumption. good luck.
trw
Instructor
Joined: Sep 2004
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If you do decide to replace the thermostat, spring for the extra bucks and get a fail safe one - normal stats fail in the closed position and will allow the engine to overheat - fail safes fail in the open position.
Race Director
Joined: Jul 2002
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From: Clayton NC
Originally Posted by cmac72
If you do decide to replace the thermostat, spring for the extra bucks and get a fail safe one - normal stats fail in the closed position and will allow the engine to overheat - fail safes fail in the open position.
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Mar 2001
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From: San Francisco CA
St. Jude Donor '07
Got the old one out after much wrestling and squishing one of my fingers (stupid ac bracket and smog pump). 
Heater hose fitting looks to be frozen solid, so I'll try to find one tomorrow.
Quick question: do I need any kind of sealant on the plugs and such? There's a plug that goes into the top of the water pump and a fitting for the heater hose, so I'm not sure if they're self sealing or if I need something on them.
Heater hose fitting looks to be frozen solid, so I'll try to find one tomorrow.Quick question: do I need any kind of sealant on the plugs and such? There's a plug that goes into the top of the water pump and a fitting for the heater hose, so I'm not sure if they're self sealing or if I need something on them.
Team Owner
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 32,519
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From: central America
St. Jude Donor '08-'09
[QUOTE=Quick question: do I need any kind of sealant on the plugs and such? There's a plug that goes into the top of the water pump and a fitting for the heater hose, so I'm not sure if they're self sealing or if I need something on them.[/QUOTE]
I've used teflon tape on those, or if you can find it the liquid teflon in a little applicator bottle works very well.
trw
I've used teflon tape on those, or if you can find it the liquid teflon in a little applicator bottle works very well.
trw
Team Owner
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 32,519
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From: central America
St. Jude Donor '08-'09
Originally Posted by Buffalo Dude
Also, there's this metal cylinder looking thing that came with it, what is it and do I need to be using it in some way?
I'm not entirely sure what you are talking about.
trw
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Racer
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 328
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From: Dallas County Texas
Yeah, silite or teflon tape the fittings before you put them in
Can't quite picture the cylinder thing....
Make sure your fan clutch seems normal.
Use a good silite (RTV, whatever) for sealant. I use the grey "ultra" stuff on aluminum, the black or orange or blue on other stuff (it's just cosmetic.) Be sure to use some of it on all four bolts to the pump as well as the gaskets.
As always, wire wheel clean the bolt threads and replace them if they are damaged in any way. These bolts bear some stress - resist the temptation to switch them for low strength ordinary hardware store SS ones if any do need replacement.
Make sure your fan clutch seems normal.
Use a good silite (RTV, whatever) for sealant. I use the grey "ultra" stuff on aluminum, the black or orange or blue on other stuff (it's just cosmetic.) Be sure to use some of it on all four bolts to the pump as well as the gaskets.
As always, wire wheel clean the bolt threads and replace them if they are damaged in any way. These bolts bear some stress - resist the temptation to switch them for low strength ordinary hardware store SS ones if any do need replacement.
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 4,652
Likes: 80
From: Lakeland Florida
Due to the age of our cars, and depending on when the last components were replaced, ( if known) I would replace a lot of parts associated with the water pump.
I agree that the upper and lower radiator hoses should be replaced, along with a known temperature thermostat. And as long as you have the water pump belts off, that would be a good time to replace those as well.
If the fan is out of the car, now would be a good time to clean it, and respray it, or touch it up.
And thats why 2-3 hour jobs somehow turn into 2 - 3 jobs.
kdf
I agree that the upper and lower radiator hoses should be replaced, along with a known temperature thermostat. And as long as you have the water pump belts off, that would be a good time to replace those as well.
If the fan is out of the car, now would be a good time to clean it, and respray it, or touch it up.
And thats why 2-3 hour jobs somehow turn into 2 - 3 jobs.
kdf
Thread Starter
Race Director
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From: San Francisco CA
St. Jude Donor '07
Here's a small picture of the cylinder, it's solid, non-threaded. I'm thinking it could be a block off for the bypass, but I think I'll leave it out because it doesn't sound like it's important.
Edit: it's the thing between the plug and the gaskets
I'm trying to get my car up and running again asap, so I'm trying not to catch the while-im-at-it-itis.
Off to the parts store for RTV, I don't have any here.
Edit: it's the thing between the plug and the gaskets
I'm trying to get my car up and running again asap, so I'm trying not to catch the while-im-at-it-itis.
Off to the parts store for RTV, I don't have any here.
Last edited by Buffalo Dude; Jul 10, 2005 at 03:47 PM.
Racer
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 328
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From: Dallas County Texas
Still don't know.....a few ideas....
Could be some type of cam thrust overtravel thing....my Victor has a screw I screwed against the TC cover + 1/4 turn.
Could be some sort of sleeve thing for the alternator upper bracket spacer - but you said it was solid, not a tube....
Could be something to line up spacers for the fan - all mine have been solid.
Could be the missing second bullet from the JFK SO-CALLED "assasination" which was REALLY an elaborate SUICIDE!!!
(I didn't say they were GOOD ideas....)
Could be some sort of sleeve thing for the alternator upper bracket spacer - but you said it was solid, not a tube....
Could be something to line up spacers for the fan - all mine have been solid.
Could be the missing second bullet from the JFK SO-CALLED "assasination" which was REALLY an elaborate SUICIDE!!!
(I didn't say they were GOOD ideas....)
time!!
