98 Malibu water pump - any things to be careful of?

[BoxMN]

Going to try to do my Malibu 3.1 water pump this weekend. Never did a water pump before, but my nephew said this should not be too bad. He had one tough bolt, and my neighbor said the bolts can be tough, and suggested I use a 1/4" rachet so I don't break it off. Any tricks when doing this to make it easier/safer?

Any other gotchas I should know? Thanks for advice!

[M1dwestF1sh]

Spray every bolt you can everyday starting a few days in advance or even just the day before with pb blaster. Makes them come out so much easier.

[Jeremy airjer W]

The bolt pattern is not symmetrical. Pay attention to the orientation of the old pump as you take it off. You will see what I mean when you put the new gasket on the new pump. It will take a couple of tries to get all the holes to line up.

Make sure you periodically open the bleeders located on the thermostat housing and the water pump bypass pipe as you burp the system. You will get a lot of air out of these two bleeders.

[BoxMN]

Thanks guys. I did it tonight, and it was pretty easy. Got the gasket on right, and I saw what you meant with the hole pattern. The bolts came out real easy to.

The only issue I had was the pulley wheel didn't want to come off. I applied heat and still didn't want to come off. Then I realized I was heating the wrong part... doh! I was heating the water pump itself instead of the black pulley portion. I hit the black part with a bit of heat and it came it right off easy.

Regarding the bleeders, I didn't realize there was more than one. I just did the one on the passenger side, I guess the bypass one (?) and not the one by thermostat. I burped it after adding fluid and heard the hiss until antifreeze came out. Then I ran engine for a short bit and had it open just a bit until it stopped spitting, and then then tightened it back up. Got it hot enough to open t-stat while doing this, and pretty much figured I was done.

Should I go back tomorrow and open the t-stat side bleeder before driving it?

Thanks for the advice once again! All in all it cost me $31 which included a gallon of antifreeze (full strength) and the pump itself, took me probably 2-2.5 hours, maybe a bit more. Next time I bet it would only take about 45 minutes.

[BoxMN]

Well, I was a bit too smug with my alleged cheap repair.... The water pump seems to be fixed properly, but I am still seeing a leak coming from about right where the water pump is. But when looking closer, it seems that the leak might be coming from the gasket around the engine end/front (passenger side) but not from the water pump area. My neighbor looked at it and he seems pretty sure it is not coming from the water pump itself.

So I am not sure if it even was a water pump problem in the first place or maybe it was, but could the damage have been done when it overheated and my wife was still driving it? Could I have a cracked block or head gasket or something ugly like that?

No oil is leaking, and when I pour antifreeze in it just leaks out in slow but steady drips even when not under pressure. It is going into the shop to get checked by a pro, but wondering what I might hear back. Thanks for any thoughts.

[delcecchi]

What's that about the wife driving it overheated?

[BoxMN]

She was driving home from work when the temp went up and red light came on. She pulled over, turned the heat and fan on high, the light went off, and she she drove home. I figured the coolant got a bit low, added it, and off she went the next day.

There was a puddle under the car after she got done with work, but the light didn't come on until she about got home again (I had filled it all the way up, and then some...), at which time I knew there was a bigger issue than just low coolant. Then I figured it was the water pump as that was the area it was leaking from.

I am bringing it in to my friend a true mechanic's shop, and he is going to see where it is coming from. He suspects either intake gasket (I already fixed that a few years ago, with the good gaskets, so hopefully that is not it) or the timing chain case gasket (?) which would be the better of the two as I think it is a bit cheaper to have done.

At this point I am just hoping it isn't more major than that...

I gotta say the water pump swap was easier than I thought, and glad it was cheap, as I might not have had to do it... heh. Or maybe the added pressure if it was bad, or that the hotter than normal engine from the water pump failing fried the gasket. Not sure.... But at least I know a little bit more about engines again! ha!

Thanks for thoughts or advice.

edit - after changing the pump, I drove to St. Louis Park for lunch with boss, and it looked fine, not seeing any fluid, or at least not a lot, as I wasn't sure if a few drips were from my car or the previous (or from my overfilling and it was still overflowing). Then I drove it back home (about 40 miles round trip) and that was when I noticed it was leaking bad. No red lights and the temp gauge read normal. I did over fill the reserviour after putting the new pump in though, so I am sure I had too much fluid in the system.

[delcecchi]

So it doesn't sound like either of you really badly overheated the engine.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Timing chain cover.... We see them fairly often.

[BoxMN]

Thanks for info. I don't think I'll try to tackle that one though. I stick to easy stuff

[Jeremy airjer W]

If you did the intake gaskets the timing cover is not that hard to do.