water pump woes...

Topic: water pump woes... (Read 1172 times) previous topic - next topic

water pump woes...

April 20, 2005, 05:26:02 PM

well, my car has reduced me to a frustrated, pissed off mess. now, im no dumbie but im having trouble with my fricken watter pump. it went bad so i bought one, installed it filled the radiator and discovered antifreeze g out of the bottom of the pump. well, figured i must have torn the gasket. i can live with that i says....so i bought a nice new felpro gasket and sealer. took everything apart again, reinstalled, reassembled and guess what. more g. its not a drip as much as it is a trickle. its a simple thing i know, but maybe im missing something....?

i deffinetly need to fix this. my car is laughing at me.

on another note, i may have scored a HO from an 89 mark vii lsc. whoever had it installed some big equal length headers. i bet that was no fun. anyway. i could turn the crank a little by hand. (no belts) i dont know if its toast, has no compression or is otherwise good. 250 is what i was quoted for it. i figure ill rebuild it anyway. thats if i even get it.

Re: water pump woes...

Reply #1 – April 20, 2005, 08:57:45 PM

Is the coolant coming out of the little hole in the bottom of the pump?
If so you probably have a bad reman pump,i've heard of it many times before.
Your better to buy a new ford one,less hassle.

Re: water pump woes...

Reply #2 – April 20, 2005, 09:30:07 PM

nope. i realized earlier that there is a hole for a bolt at the bottom of the pump. its smaller that all the others. the same as the little one on the top where the nut is. the old pump looked original. it didnt have the bolt in there. i can only asume that i need to get one in there. its deffinetly trickling out at the gasket. i know its a simple fix putting in a new pump but WTH.

there is a little notch at the bottom of where the block (timing cover) and the bump meets. it looks like a little break in where the gasket surface is. i figured it belongs there. doubt i put it there. guess its possible.

i think coolant may be weeping from either the lower intake, head or timing cover too. its wet above the watter pump. i cant realy tell but i think i may have a bigger problem that i originally though. might be an excuse to get a better engine (HO) in there sooner than i thought anyway.

btw...thanks

Re: water pump woes...

Reply #3 – April 21, 2005, 07:05:27 PM

I learned this stuff the hard way too. replaced pump on my 5.0L Cougar and my 2.9L Ranger. There may be a slight chance the gasket wont work now due to curling of the gasket. Did you glue the gaskets inner and outer and allowed them to cure enough to lay flat at all points? I have to admit it happened to me on the Ranger, years ago. Recently a buddy of mines brother in law put 3 new water pumps on his full size Dodge pickup. they all lost fluid over time making it a constant hassle and overheating the vehicle again. He finally had someone experienced look at it with a hand pump with a radiator attachment. Found a bad hose. Leak wasn't visible until they put 35 psi on the system.
I had a problem like that on the COUGAR, years ago too. It was just a loose hose clamp where the heater hose went into the firewall, bugged me for weeks though, because it was so infernally small. I change all hoses and clamps now when I do this job.
:2c:

JP

Re: water pump woes...

Reply #4 – April 21, 2005, 08:32:09 PM

also, i had an issue similar, but not as bad

after a while, i started seeing coolant puddles under my 3.8 car, couldnt figure it out, found out that i forgot to put sealant on one of the bolts, one or two of the bolts thread into a coolant passage

Re: water pump woes...

Reply #5 – April 21, 2005, 09:59:40 PM

i have a question for you..
when you say you put sealant on the gasket what do you mean by sealant? i know i'm going to get some feedback on what i'm about to say but here it goes..

what kind of sealant did you use? silicone? or indian head by permatex?

the reason why i ask is in my days of working small block fords every time i used silicone it would cause the gasket to get pushed out at the bottom and it would leak.. i even tried the smallest amount by applying it with my finger and it would still push the gasket out so ever since then i use indian head.

i have even used this..

i even used this with no problems..

Nick

Re: water pump woes...

Reply #6 – April 21, 2005, 11:47:02 PM

actually, the first time indian head. the second time i tried the orange silicone figuring the indian head didnt do the J-O-B

Re: water pump woes...

Reply #7 – April 22, 2005, 08:34:49 PM

i know i'm going to get some feedback on what i'm about to say but here it goes..

Not by me, I've been humbled by "THE BEAST" on more than one occasion.

Lets see, I used " Permatex High-Temp RTV silicone gasket maker." Other people might recommend something else this is just what I use. I've had success with it. I personally found if you put the sealer on both sides of the first gasket, lay the first bead on the pump after removing the backing plate.Spread it thin and lay gasket down. Lay down another bead on the gasket Put the backing plate back on the water pump. Put all your bolts back in the water pump ( on the back side your going to take them out in a minute ) Put the back bolts in and tighten the bolts on the backing plate. Once thats done take the water pump bolts out that you were using as alignment studs and run another thin bead (spread with your finger) on the face of the back edge of the pump, the face that's going to mount against the motor. Put the second gasket (you did get two gaskets) over the RTV and line up the holes again with the pump bolts.

Now comes the important part. I Put the pump down and let it set. You now have one clean gasket surface left, the one that mounts to the engine. Make sure to clean the surfaces if any RTV was squeezed out when you tightened up the pump backplate. Make sure all your bolts are clear of RTV and aligned in pump mounting holes. How long do I let it set? Well the back of the tube says it fully cures in 24 hours. Now I havn't tried doing it quicker and I'm sure many have and had no problems. This is where your own judgement comes into play.

Once cured or you want to put it on, prep surfaces get all your things together. Put a fine bead on the last gasket surface take the bolts out and put the pump on the engine and tighten it down. Wipe the edges clean. Here again, I personally let it set till cured, then finish assembling and putting it together. Take a visit over to EVANS.com I've wanted to try their system of long lasting fluid replacements for awhile now.

I might stowe away enough parts to do that on my Cats 30th aniversary.

Good Luck with the install

JP