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Emergancy!! Water pump replace went wrong!!!

7K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  Hairball 
#1 ·
My water pump pulley fell apart on the freeway and i had to get my 92 seville towed...when i went to my mecahnic the next day he told me i had to get the water pump replaced, i went with him to the savalge yard we found a 4.9 seville yr 93 im guessing...wew took apart the water pump but left the gasket ...we put the water pump on my seville with the gasket it had already had...when we put anti freeze in the radiator ...we noticed the whole gallan was leaking out from the timing pulley area...wht is this probllem???we used sealent and everything...do i need a new gasket too????
 
#3 ·
I dont know how old the pump is, and the leak was coming not from the water pump pulley area but from the left lower area...tomorrow im getting a new gasket from napa...and i might get a new pump aswell..what about any small tubes that water pump needs because everything fell apart on freeway..also can it be that i need a better sealent
 
#7 · (Edited)
...tomorrow im getting a new gasket from napa...and i might get a new pump aswell...also can it be that i need a better sealent...
1. MAKE SURE to buy a Fel-Pro #35388 gasket or risk having it not line up! I know from recent experience that the cheap japanese gasket in the box does not always line up once the water pump puts pressure on it! This was what the gasket in the box did for me...


2. DO NOT use any sealant other than SPRAY-ON High Tack in a can! Cadillacs does not suggest any sealant, but a certified technician I know at the dealer suggested spray-on high tack and it worked fine. Buy THIS stuff...
 
#4 ·
Those 4.9 water pumps are very faulty, its a poor design if you ask me and a PITA to replace, what is it 15 bolts? That's insane. Anyways there's 2 bolts right inline with some of the others that holds on the timing cover, I believe they're 15mm DO NOT remove them. Its very tricky getting the gasket back in there just right since the water pump is so long
 
#6 · (Edited)
Re: EmergEncy!! Water pump replace went wrong!!!

Ironically, my water pump just bit the dust too last Sunday! I expected it, since it has been howling for a few months! The bearing finally failed and my belt flew off. My buddy rescued me with his car trailer.


The 4.9 water pump actually has 19 things holding it: seven 10mm nuts, two 15mm bolts, one 17mm bolt, six 10mm bolts, one 11mm bolt with a washer and nut on the back, and two T45 torx bolts. WAY TOO MANY! Since there are so many nuts and bolts, what I did was trace the new water pump on poster board, then write next to each dot what came off at each location. It worked great! No guessing when putting them back on!


Not sure how your gasket can be hard to keep in place since there are 7 studs sticking out to hang it on. The FSM does not mention using any kind of sealant, so I called my friend who is a tech at the local Cadillac dealer and he said NOT to use any kind of RTV or silicone, but it's a good idea to spray both sides of the gasket with high-tack spray, so I did. He did warn me not to be surprised if my timing cover started leaking after I was all done! He said when he does a water pump, he almost always replaces the timing cover gasket at the same time because they tend to start leaking. Well, I got lucky. Mine didn't leak when I was done!

The biggest pain in the butt was putting tension on the belt like the FSM says to do in order to loosen the bolts on the water pump pulley! It's like chewing gum and walking. Or sneezing with your eyes open. You have to use all your body weight to push down on the tensioner while at the same time unbolting the pulley. I didn't work! So I had to rig up a contraption as a second set of hands: a ratchet strap on a breaker bar, but the hooks kept sliding so I had to use vise grips to hold them in place. FINALLY, I got the pulley bolts off!


I totally agree, I would never, ever buy a used water pump. :tisk: Heck, a new one is only $34 and worth it. However, the gasket that came in mine was not a good fit! Two of the holes on the right didn't line up, so I had to removed the pump again and go get a Fel-Pro #35388, and it fit fine! I think the hardest part of the entire job was getting a torque wrench down in that small space to torque the nuts and bolts! The 10mm ones you can pretty much just tighten by hand since they only go 5 ft lbs, but the 15mm and 17 mm and torx bolts should be tightened to specs, which is 30 ft lbs. WHO at Cadillac came up with the idea to use Torx bolts on a water pump??? You'll NEVER get a torque wrench on the pump pulley bolts, so what I did was hold it in place with a large screwdriver with a square shaft lodged between another bolt. It works, but only if your screwdrive has a square shaft. Round ones will keep slipping off.


Good luck! (If you haven't solved your problem yet). If you have any questions, just ask. It's all still in my head! That white page above is copied directly out of my FSM and it's only one page from start to finish.
 
#8 ·
Correct, no sealant, only dry gaskets.

There should be no 11mm with a washer on it. That was most likely a makeshift repair for stripped threads in the water inlet, as many people love to overtighten these. Cadillac only calls for 5 lb-ft on them. Let me guess, the 11mm was mixed in with the 10mm's around the perimeter bolts? Around here, in your picture?



Also, in the picture above, notice the bolt hole through the timing cover near the red gasket "ear". DO NOT REMOVE THAT BOLT (or the other one on the opposite side). That bolt is there to hold the water inlet against the timing cover, preventing it from being disturbed as you remove the rest of the bolts for the water pump. If the water inlet is disturbed, it's gasket will leak and you'll be doing it all again. The assembly is shown here:

 
#11 ·
Correct, no sealant, only dry gaskets.

There should be no 11mm with a washer on it. That was most likely a makeshift repair for stripped threads in the water inlet, as many people love to overtighten these. Cadillac only calls for 5 lb-ft on them. Let me guess, the 11mm was mixed in with the 10mm's around the perimeter bolts?
No, that bolt goes through a hole that comes out in the back of the housing area. It wasn't a stripped hole. It actually goes into a bolt hole and comes out the back where you have to reach behind it and attach the washer and nut. There is no way it was a stripped hole. It was way too big. It was indeed where you mentioned, but there was nothing behind it. No block. It all made sense to me why it would have a nut, but I kept thinking it should have required a 10mm socket instead of 11mm. But it makes no sense to assume that the hole had previously be stripped out and the bolt replaced with an 11mm bolt. That hole was just too big. And why would it have gone all the way through if it wasn't meant to have a nut behind it?
 
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