80TA

Well only 60,000 miles on the car and water pump is dying..
weeping thru the hole.

Should I take this on myself..looks fairly simple but a bit messy and if not how many hours is book to change it out.

And should I buy a new pump from gm or get one for napa or jobber??

80TA

Oh manual I have a chilton mentions some kind of tool for oring or something..do I have to buy this tool or can I just use a socket or something to get the o ring in there or do even have to change out the o ring..?

Bersaglieri

I had to change mine when I did my opti. Its not hard at all, but you may spill some coolant on the opti if your not careful. No special tools were needed on my 94.

Do it yourself. Its time consuming

I'd stick with the GM model.

If you have anymore questions just let me know.

If you think 60k is bad, my opti went at 37k

-Dustin-

Dave88LX

Just keep your existing pump, knock out hte internals, plug the back, and run an electric.

80TA

I am not 100% trust an electric.It seems the mechanical starts weeping and gives some warning before it goes completely the electric would just go and that would be it..zero cooling.
On a race car might be fine on a street car just not convinced maybe if they had like 100,000 mile life spans. It is a thought and would free up a few ponies too.

Super Slow '97

It will take you a couple of hours to tear it down I can do mine in about two hours that includes the opti. But I have done it a few times it is not that hard... if your opti is original go ahead and replace it. I could see the job for someone who has not done to be done in 5-6 hours. JMHO


-Matt

jkipp84

It's not a difficult job at all, just a little time consuming depending on, of course, you

You'll be fine, I say knock it out yourself.

Zepher

You don't need to mess with the o-ring in the timing cover, so no special tools are required.

Just remember to bleed all the air out of the system or else it will run very hot.
And don't forget to put the coupler on, that is the piece between the waterpump and the waterpump driveshaft.

80TA

I am not changin out my opti even once .I will buy the delteq system if it acts up.So far I think its fine but maybe this pump dripping on it might have hurt it..no matter.So planning on doing it myself .I have fixed intake leak on my old 97 ws6 ,installed cams and oil pumps an stuff in my 99 ta so should be ok.Seems a bit of pain you have to take the fans off.Any quick tricks or tips.My car is 96.Do I have to drain the block too or just the rad and then put some towel or something to catch coolant when pull the pump off.?? Do I need any special tools for this.??

I had heart attack at local gm price and even parts direct is not cheap.I am forced to go with a rebuilt pump not sure make but with lifetime warranty.Since its not a hard job guess that will have to do.As said just dont' trust electric pumps that much.

Hope it works out fine.There really isn't much inside the pumps gm could probably offer a rebuild kit for cheap if they wanted to.

Dave88LX

Try Jason Cromer or Dal Slabaugh. Search for contact info.

80TA

Well guys tackling this today.My car is 96 .So it says have to take out both fans..yes no? And can I just drain rad and put towel under the pump or do I have to drain both block plugs one being the knock sensor.Any other tips or tricks to save time on this job..

Thanks guys.

Super Slow '97

Yes the fans need to be removed for easier access to the pump. No you do not need to drain the block... I never have. When you pull the bolts out of the pump it will drian a little bit hav a small bucket for the amount that will come out of the bolt holes.

Zepher

Fans don't need to be removed, it can be done with the fans installed, it just gets a little tight.

80TA

Well proceeding with the job.I took out passenger side fan that one was tight but it don't like like drivers side is in the way much on my 96.I got all hoses off and the four main pump bolts but it seems pump is stuck.In my chilton it says to take coil out of way and to remove air pump.I can't see why this is necessary did they put part of pump under the air pump /coil??

Is there any reason to take off the middle little 8mm bolts on the pump to take it off or is it just stuck on the block??

I can of course take off air pump and coil and would like to just chuck the air pump in the garbage anyway and would if it weren't for it throwing codes on my 96 so guess it can stay there for a bit longer.

So appreciating this help and would appreciate if you guys can get back to me on the need to take off coil and airpump to get pump on and off and are you guys sure I don't need any special tools to get the pump on again..Not doing the opti.If it gets sick from doing the pump install since I didn't drain block just rad and tilted car to try to get it to drain away from opti.I will put on that delteq if this opti dies..

80TA

Ok pump is off .Figured out why you have to take off air pump and coil because stupid retared gm hid a bolt under that crap.
They really could have put the pump on with four bolts I bet instead of six.Oh well its off now.And in the process decided codes or not to rip that pos air pump off their and the air tubes going to the manifolds.

Couple questions about that.What size bolt fill the holes in the exhaust manifold..was it m22 or something.Also do you buy a cap to cap the air intake tube where the air pump goes into it..
Also there are two plugs on the air pump I think..one into the pump and think one into a harness near it..Is it ok to leave both of them unplugged I realize will have ses anyway on my 96.

Also on the water pump it came with new gaskets and some little oring..where does that tiny oring go..???

This really has been a messy pain in the butt job.I bet the shop hours is like 4 or 5 for it..?? Its almost tempting to keep going and do a cam or something.Almost..I don't plan on cam for this car.possibly some rockers but putting springs on with the engine in the car don't look like much fun at all....Did that on my ls1 it wasn't much fun..100% easy with heads off the car..nightmare with heads on the car.

Well think quitting for today..smell like dexcool and it isn't a very nice smell.Tommorrow hopefully get things back together.

Also can that passenger side aluminum air tube be taken off the car without removing too much stuff cause if it can't likely will just bend it off till it breaks and worry about it down the road.We have no emmissions inspections here at all.At least so far.I already twisted off the things that go into exhaust manifold.
Does anyone know what size socket will now go over the
nuts in the exhaust manifold.they seem bigger than 24 mm so guessing mabye 25 or bigger.It looks like you have to unscrew
those nuts to get the new bolts in there..