Anyone have a write-up on replacing a waterpump?

  • Sponsors (?)


I don't have a writeup, but I'm new to the mustang engines (was a Jeep man in a former life :D) and I was able to do my h20 pump with little problems.

I'd say with a haynes/chiltons in hand it is a very simple job with no special tools required.

From what I can remember off the top of my head:
-Drain your coolant (this is a good time to flush your radiator)- remove the lower hose from the radiator (drivers side). Disconnect and remove all hoses to the pump (makes it easier with them out of the way, I find)- replace those that need replacing.
-Loosen the bolts on the water pump pulley BEFORE you remove the s-belt, then remove the belt and pulley.
-The water pump has a s*** load of bolts holding it down- refer to the new one to locate them all.
-There is one bolt you may think you need to remove the vibration damper to to get to- you do not! Just remove the pulley (you can use a socket on the main crank bolt to break the pulley bolts loose). You'll know which one I mean when you can't find it at first :rlaugh:
-Once you have the water pump out, remove the elbow on the intake and replace your thermostat following the cleaning procedure below- also, make sure you get the gasket for the thermostat while you're at the parts store, for some damn reason they don't include it a lot of times with the actual thermostat and you end up having to run back out for it :bs:
-Clean the crap out the the mating surface. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING worse in this world than going through all this trouble only to find you have a leak after reassembly because of shoddy/lazy cleaning.
-Clean it again, use some carb cleaner or similar to really clean it, then some alcohol and a clean cloth to get all the cleaner/oil/remaining residue off.

Finally, as they say, reassembly is the reverse of removal :D

Fill 'er up with coolant, if it is overheating you may need to "burp" air out of it- ensure your engine is cold, fill the radiator to the top and the overflow to the "cold" mark. Leave the cap off and start the engine. While keeping an eye on the temperatures let it run until it "burps" out any trapped air in the system.

If I missed anything I'm sure someone will be along shortly to add/correct :SNSign:
 

Rock on, good call.

e8adll.jpg


That bottom bastard almost tricked my into pulling the whole vib. damper off :rlaugh: It really doesn't seem like it'll come off without it when you're looking at it while its in the car. :rolleyes:
 

Attachments

  • e8adll.jpg
    e8adll.jpg
    78 KB · Views: 71
Just a word of caution... be very careful when taking off the bolts, or putting them on for that matter. I broke one of the long bolts off this year that go into the timing chain cover. Needless to say, a simple waterpump swap turned into a nightmare of me taking the timing chain cover off to get this bolt out.

And after that, while I was putting it back on I shattered the threads on the middle bolt. Thank god it didn't go into the cover. I was able to thread a metric bolt around the same size to keep it on.

Damn aluminum.
 
Well i just got the waterpump installed everything went smoothly until I started it up... I still have a leak and I have no idea where it's coming from and it turns I must have have punctured my radiator in the process so now 1 problem has turned into 2 problems and I think the thermostats not opening up either I am so mad all I wanted to do is buy a turbo I finally got the money saved up and now it seems I will just be blowin it tryin to find what's wrong :(
 
Chill out dude. Thermostats are cheap. And if you are going to be putting a turbo on your car, you're going to need a bigger radiator anyway. So in reality, you haven't really lost any money at all. Get a bigger radiator and install it. Look for something that is at least 2" thick. I think everyone here has gone with the Mishimoto or something like that radiator. Steeda sells there 2" radiator on sale for like $380 every once in awhile. That's also a good radiator. If your car has any kind of miles on it, odds are that radiator was full of crap and on it's way out anyway. When it comes to the thermostat, you are really going to need some flow when you get the turbo anyway. So get a Mr. Gasket high flow thermostat 180 deg. You can look up the part number on the Mr. Gasket website. Advance Auto Parts can get that thermostat like next day, and I'm thinking it's in the $9 range. You can get it through Summit also, but then you have to pay a handling charge.

Kurt