got a little coolant seeping out from around one of the bolts holding the water pump on. I assume some RTV on the bolt will solve this issue? or do i need to pull the pump and replace the gaskets?

 

pull pump, replace gaskets thats your best bet

 

You have nothing to lose by trying a thread sealant first. My bet is that'll do the trick.

JamesC

 

i hope so. the gaskets are almost new.

 

at least 1 of the wp bolts goes into the water passage. A little thread sealant should work fine.

 

Yeah I agree some thread sealant should do the trick,it's worked for me in past.

 

Yep if the coolant is seeping out around the bolt head, just pull it and put RTV on it. That being said water pump gaskets are 60 cents each so i would pull the pump and put some black RTV on the threads of all the bolts and reinstall the pump.

 

This same problem happened to me. I tried putting RTV on the bolts, but that didnt solve my problem. Pull the water pump, clean the surface on the block really really good, if there is junk on the surface it will leak out. Best bet clean it with a buffer (if you can) or with a gasket scrapper. What i did was put gasket maker on it made by Permatex instead of the gasket, some people dont like to do this.

If you decide to do what I did, put the gasket maker on the water pump first, then get two bolts and put rtv on them (you dont have to cover all the threads just about half way) thread the two top bolts dont make contact then thread the two bottem bolts. After that tourqe all the bolts. Wait for it to dry it says an hour, but there is a gasket maker that dries faster then that.

Oh the reason I used the gasket maker is because it filled out those gaps.