Has anyone done this before? I know it's fairly simple, and I need to save some money so I gotta do it myself. How long would it take me and is there any tricky parts, like hard to reach bolts?

And is there a specific brand of pump? Right now the one on it is a Crappy Tire replacement...it's a nice bright orange rust colour which I hate...I can't afford a nice billet aluminum one so is there something descently priced that I can get?

 

Hey IROCKER
I also have to replace the stupid water pump soon..
tell me about it after.

 

Hey IROCKER,

I wouldn't get another CDN Tire unit -- but we already know that.
If I was going to replace mine I'd get a GM or OEM quality unit. Pumps supplied by 2nd or 3rd tier manufacturers will not last as long and will cavitate at lower rpms. This is not good for our thin walled heads. If you need car soap, wax or ping-pong ***** goto CT otherwise try GM or a UAP dealer.

The water pump re & re is easy. You will have to:

- optional, disconnect the battery (paranoid -- your hands will be in a bad spot if anyone for any reason accidentally started the motor).
- drain the rad or atleast drain enough to lower the coolant below the physical height of the water pump.
- optional, remove rad cause one bad hit and you are buying a new rad (if you have electric fans not such a worry, the fans will actually guard the rad somewhat although it will be tight in there, it is up to you).
- loosen the bolts attaching your pulley to the water pump, if you have a mechanical fan these bolts are the same.
- release the tension from the serpentine tensioner and remove the belt. If you have the pre-88 setup, remove all belts that are tensioned on the water pump (the latter can be a pain as the accessories will be dirty, greasy and hard to get at).
- undo the bolts attaching the pump to the block and remove pump.
- clean gasket surfaces (I have previously applied some gasket goop) and test gaskets against the block and water pump.
- put the new pump with gaskets in place and install bolts.

Reverse the removal steps for the pump re-install. It is pretty easy. A little messy with the anti-freeze bit. The pulley can be a real pain and accessories worse if you have to remove these too) but is pretty straight forward work otherwise. I've done this job on both serpentine and non-serpentine 3rd gens, never ran into any difficulties.

hope this helps,
RP.

 

it should take only about 2 or so hours. dont forget the gasket and the water pump bolts should be torked to 30 foot pounds. it would also be a very good time to change the hoses to the rad also. i changed the water pump and rad last year all at one time. only to change the hoses a week later because they split. from the pressure a guess

 

There's a brass fitting that screws into the pump casting so that one of the hoses can attach to it. This fitting can be a real pain to get out of the old casting. I had to heat the casting to get the brass piece out. It might save you a bit of aggrovation if you just bought a new brass fitting when you're getting the pump.

 

Irocker, the water pump isnt all that big of a deal, shouldnt take all that long, sort of just a quick removal & installation job.

As for the part, not really sure which one is better than others, I would just call Ssummit and see what they have which is "half decent" Dont know if you have ever purchased anything from them but I find they ususally have some good suggestions/advice.

Its fairly straight forward, but if you need a hand or just advice on how to do it, etc just let me know and I can stop by to help out or whatever.

Dave

 

Hey IROCKER.... maybe check into getting the waterpump powder coated, if you are worried about corrosion.

 

Thanks guys...I got to call around about prices today as I want to do this on Saturday or Sunday.

I have another question for ya all...do I have a short or long style water pump? And how can you tell the difference?

palric: I agree...I will not be buying another CT unit as this thing didn't even last 20,000 KMs. Since I get a discount at a lot of the dealerships I will probably go with the GM piece.

trigger: Yup, I planned on replacing the lower hose...it's looking very very old and I'm surprised it hasn't sprung a leak yet.

Nathan: Powder coating would indeed be the way to go but I probably wouldn't be able to get it done by Saturday. Plus I need to keep the cost down. I think some VHT might do the trick.

 

Well I ordered the GM water pump and a lower rad hose today...should be at the dealer by tommorrow. The two parts, with the discount, were less than $150 which is much less than I was expecting.

How much coolant/water do I need to fill it? Anybody know?

 

you should need almost 2 jugs of coolant. depending on how much you drain and how you mix it with water. but plan on buying two

 

One option is to buy a catch basin at CDN Tire for about $13.99 to collect the green stuff that drains and then reuse it rather than buying new stuff. Nothing wrong with new stuff, just getting difficult to dispose of used anti-freeze nowadays so might save some trouble.

If you want to replace then count on about 2-3 liters as you will lose the entire block plus the rad anti-freeze and can back fill with water if you run short.

As for short and long nose there is two pumps that fit 3rd gens, one for pre-serpentine and one for serpentine setups (pump turns in different directions). Any GM dealer will set you up with the right part.

good luck,
RP.

 

Thanks trigger and palric. I'll pick up two jugs of Prestone this week. I though about using the old stuff, but then I thought if I'm draining it all out anyway, I might as well replace it.

 

To anyone else looking to replace their water pump, I just picked mine up tonight and I highly recommend the AC Delco unit. For starters it's new, not remanufactured, which is a bonus. And secondly, it already painted in crinkle black (kinda like a powder coating) so no rusting! Regular price would have been $159 which is not bad...with the club discount it came to $92! Definately can't complain about that. So guess what I'll be doing Saturday afternoon.

 

Yah, if you want stuff that is going to last then buy GM off the shelf. I spent some time around auto parts chains a few years back. Found out about 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tier manufacturers of auto parts. It is pretty interesting.

1st tier is either original manufacturer, say GM or a company GM owns, or an authorized OEM company (eg: Magna), that builds parts according to original specification and tolerances.

2nd tier is usually on-shore, not owned (by GM) and is considered third party, and can build to original spec but lesser tolerances.

3rd tier is off-shore and we all know what that means.

Buying a CDN Tire water pump is usually a 3rd tier piece and is for examples sake, designed to last 25,000kms. The same unit off the GM shelf will be designed to last 80,000 to 100,000kms. The same unit off the UAP Auto parts shelf will be designed to last 50,000 to 60,000kms. In a nutshell that is how it works.

thx,
RP.

 

Well that's about right on the money then as the Crappy Tire pump last about 2.5 years and about 20,000 KMs. I'm not impressed. But of course that's why I'm going with the GM piece this time.