Martinh5621

allright guys so i noticed the other day i had some leakage on the bottom of my water pump, the car never once over heated on me or anything but i parked my 98 so i didnt do anymore harm to her.

ok, so i got the new part from forum member Tuffguy610 (big thanks to him by the way) i installed the water pump, made sure it was all plugged up around the hoses and that the gaskets where on flush. everythin seemed ok.


I top it off with coolant turned it on and let it idle for about 5 minutes and with the AC turned on, the coolant temp was around 190-200ish.

there wasnt a single leak at all.

i get into my vette and take her for a test drive, after about 1/3 of a mile, i noticed my coolant temp going to 220, 230, 240, finally it went all the way up to 260!!!

i pulled into the nearest parking lot and popped the hood. all the coolant was just about gone in the reservoir, after thinking that i finally was gonna be able to drive my car after seeing it sit for 3 days, all that went away lol.


Then my worst fear came to mind, did i crack a head??? And talk about being stressed because she is my daily driver


I called a buddy of mine who has his own alcohol blown dragster and told him what the deal was, he laughed at me and told me, "I bet you didnt bleed out all the air bubbles right?"


After doing what he instructed me to do, let it idle and keep on filling the coolant up until all the coolant is done burping out all of the air bubbles from what was lost in the engine when i had a leak in my old water pump. She finally settled down and now shes running good as new again

Im writing this because i dont want anyone on here to do what i did, thank God i got it all figured out before i did any more damage.


ALWAYS BLEED OUT YOUR COOLANT WHEN CHANGING A WATER PUMP!!!

Patches

Service manual has the coolant fill procedure which prevents that problem. Done it several times with no issues. Do a search - it's posted here in several threads.

VETJAZZ

No good deed goes unpunished, or live and learn? Either way, glad she's on the road again.

Corvette0096

Yah I have done this myself.. Years and years ago.

Martinh5621

Yep, live and learn!

NorCalVette Kid

Thanks for the heads up! I'm about to do mine this weekend!

Martinh5621

Well this thread served its purpose! don't have an idiot moment like I did lol

Vetteman Jack

Good that you got it all sorted out with no damage to the motor.

Charles L. Cotton

Another thanks for keeping me from making the same mistake. I just changed the water pump and decided I'd check the forum to see if there was something special about refilling.

Thanks for the tip.
Chas.

Paul 75 L82

Burping:

Start w/ a cold engine
Remove rad. cap
Idle for 1 minute
Install cap
Cycle RPM from idle to 3000 until coolant reaches 210F
Shut off engine
Remove cap
Start engine
Idle for 1 minute
Install cap
Cycle RPM from idle to 3000 until coolant reaches 210F
Shut off engine
Remove cap
Top off

Lee DeRaud

A stunningly stupid question...

The cooling system on every other (modern) car I've seen/owned had two caps: a pressure cap on the radiator itself and a filler cap on the overflow tank. And the service manual talks about the "radiator pressure cap" and the "surge tank cap" as if they are two separate things.

But the Corvette just has the one (combination filler/pressure) cap on top of the surge tank, right? Just trying to make sure I'm not missing something obvious...

(EDIT: upon further review, my Porsche also had a single cap on the overflow tank, but it had three radiators buried up front where you couldn't get at them without major surgery.)

oldschoolvette

good reminder

eleonb

the surge has a presure cap because the radiator is below the engine, to beed air form coolant system after pump chane is to take the two small hoses loose from under the throttle body with engine running,,wont take long,, until all air is gone from heads then with cap open and engine running top off,,close cap shut engine off for a few minutes,,,restart engine open cap,,this will allow air to escape from top of radiator thru small hose leading to surge tank,,after first drive around nieghborhood recheck coolant level should be good,,but recheck after the next trip or two,,cant hurt

Lee DeRaud

(slaps forehead) Got it, thanks.

MSG C5

Good advice. Thanks!