hey guys i have an 88iroc witha 350 swapped into it...

one morning i got a squeal and i hit it with some belt dressing and that cured it temporarily ...

since then 2 new belts, a tensioner, and no fix to the problem...

belt dressing fixes it for about an hours worth of driving now.... whats wrong?

also i got code 13 (o2) and i was wondering if tha could cause my engine to bog when i drop the hammer../and if there is an o2 simulator i can get.

help.. that squeal is driving me nuts!

thanks

-tim

 

Is the belt the right length? I assume it's squealing for a reason.... maybe something's "tight" or almost seized up? I can't remember the last time I had a belt squeal on a serpentine system unless the belt was shot or one of the accessories was out of whack.

 

+1 on this post. If a new belt and tensioner doesn't fix it, either the belt is the wrong size or one of the accessories is about to sieze. You would be surprised at how much power one of these serps can carry. I was once on a drawbridge, could not stop or pull over. My alternator dies catastrophically, the bearings let go and the shaft was cocked from belt tension, so much so that the alternator fan was digging into the mounting bracket, peeling off metal. I had to keep going, it was making a terrible noise. The serp belt kept turning the thing until I got off the bridge and was able to pull over. As soon as I took my foot off the gas the engine died immediately. I opened the hood and the alternator was smoking, nearly hot enough to catch fire, and I could see where the fan had been grinding away on the bracket. Serp belt was still intact, no slipping. When I got that alternator off the motor, the shaft was totally siezed. I still got my core charge for it though!!!

 

One thing to check is to count the number of groves on your pulleys than on the belt to be sure you are getting the right belt. Then remove the belt get a green scotchbrite pad and use it on the belt running surface of the pulleys to deglaze them.

 

the belt is the right belt... i've replaced it and so has a mechanic... both the correct belts... the grooves all line up and it is tense.

the sound seems to be coming from the water pump... perhaps jthe water pump is going to sieze?

that is not a good thing, considering i'm 300 miles from home on vacation right now.

the thing with the scotch pad or whatever was already tried by my mechanic, thinking there was maybe too much belt dressing or gunk in the grooves and that the pulley was sliding because of that but it wasn't.

hard hard is it to do a water pump? lol

 

If the belts were correct and the scotchbrite didnt work than it is very possible that something is on the way out. No water pumps are not hard to replace at all. The most work is in removing the belts and other accessories to get to the pump. Just be sure to mark and label belts, hoses, and brackets so you remember where and how they go.

 

Should be able to change the water pump on a 88 without removing anything else. I did it.

Be sure to get a reverse rotation pump!

 

yea the water pump is pretty easy to change... take of the serp belt.. then its like what 4 bolts... took me less then 30 min to do mine

 

Well, the belt has been covered. No you can't get an O2 sim as the O2 is used to adjust the a/f mixture. O2 sims are for after cat apps that are only used to determine if the cat is functioning. Look elsewhere for the bog. How's the state of tune?

 

so if the 02 sensor in the header is for a/f mixture, then it is possible that if it is malfunctioning that the a/f mix may be off enough to bog the engine righht? anyway i don't have the space or equipment here to do my water pump so i'm taking it to a mechanic :-\... i don't want to drive home just it canse it decides to go out on the way home.

 

Yeah, if the O2 is bad, the a/f will be off. When was the last time it was replaced? Those should be changed every 60k or so.

Don't have the space or equipment to change the water pump? Huh? what space? If you can stand by the opened hood, that's all the space you need, do it in your driveway. What equipment? You don't have a sdet of wrenches amd sockets/ratchet? That's all you need.

1. - Before removing the serp belt, loosen the 4 bolts holding the water pump pulley on the pump snout. Once those are loose a bit, then remove the serp belt.
2. - Once the belt is off, finish removing the 4 bolts holding on the pulley and remove the pulley from the snout.
3. - Remove all water hoses from the pump.
4. - Remove the 4 bolts that hold the pump to the block.
5. - Pull the pump off the block. Clean the old gasket crap off the mounting surface on the block.
6. - Get the new gaskets and put a thin layer of sealer on them, on the side that goes toward the block. Use the sealer to stick them to the block in position.
7. - Put another thin layer of sealer on the mounting surfaces of the new pump, and start a bolt thru the holes on each side. Line it up with the holes in the block and start the bolts in by hand. Put in the remaining 2 bolts by hand. Tighten them down with the tools.
8. - the rest should be obvvious, hook up the water lines, reinstall the pulley and belt. Refill the rad. fire it up and look for leaks.

 

yeah i have all that at home... i'm on vacation in ocean city md right now... far from my tools :-\

anyway its been dropped off at a shop unfortunately... but thanks for helping me narrow down the problem guys...

keep on keepin on

 

Has everybody forgotten about the AIR pump?
Atleast pull the back cover and grease the needle bearings while doing the WP. Don't look now but what little grease it was put together with is almost 20 years old.
Mine was so dry I don't know why it hadn't locked up.
When it's disassembled it'll be easy to tell if it's going south.
And remember (since it's serpentine) when it stops spinning bad things happen...

 

yeah i had checked to see where the sound was coming from... with my friends stethoscope actually and it wasn't coming from there... although that was my next project to remove that and replace it with the smog delete pulley.... would have been nice to have brought that on vacation with me lol.

if its not the water pump then i know where to look then. thanks guys.