The WP is leaking from the weep hole and it is slinging the coolant everywhere thus why you saw it on the battery and such. The process of removing and replacing is not that difficult, just more time consuming than anything. You can pick up a WP at your local auto parts store and spend anywhere from $50 to $150 depending on what kind of warranty you want. The concerning part about your story is the loss of power. Because of the water leak, it could have gotten into your opti and is now wreaking havoc on it. There may be a possibility of needing to replace that too. Now here is the kicker. You can't replace the opti without pulling the WP. Find out about the opti first before taking on this project so you can get both at the same time and save yourself alot of frustration and aggravation of having to do the WP twice.

 

Changing the water pump is easy I'd do it for $75. But I live in San Antonio. If you really don't think you can do it, find someone from the board in your area. It seriously is an easy job.

- Z28WannaB

 

I have had the upper RPM hesitation problem for about a month now... maybe longer with less severe symptoms. It could just be my opti giving out on me, since I'm pretty sure it's the original. My car has about 75k on it. If it is the opti, then I might get the Delteq.... would it be worth it?

 

Do a search for Jason Cromer and order a GM opti from him. Probably the best price you'll get will be from him.

 

Would a diagnostic scan using Datamaster show me if my opti is giving out on me?

 

A shop with a waveform analyzer (scope) can tell you, should be $45, they check the spark waveform for scatter, weakness, fluctuations, etc.

Problem is the car need to be running...

 

Yeah, that is the problem.

I don't really think I should run the car long enough to get a scan anyway, since I wouldn't have coolant I guess I'll just replace the water pump for now, then do the opti later if I need to. All of you are saying that the water pump is very easy... know of any write-ups on it? Or is it so easy that one isn't necessary?

PS: I just got my Corolla running on the 4th. Started with a bad water pump, turned into a leaky water pump hose, then offset timing. Took me about 4 weeks from start to finish Granted, I didn't work on it very much. I couldn't get it to start for such a long time so I replaced the battery and starter to find that the crankshaft key had shot out when I tried starting it at some point. Put it in, turned the crankshaft to line it up with the camshaft and it ran fine! I just want to be sure that I won't run into anything like this when doing the water pump on the T/A... I know there will be some small thing(s) that will happen... there usually is.

 

I had the same problem this weekend. Hadn't started the T/A in a while, and this is the first time I saw it leak coolant, but that's where it is coming from. I was thinking of doing it myself, but did someone say I have to remove the intake? That bothers me a little. Does anyone have a "walkthrough" online that I could look at?

 

The Air intake, not the intake manifold. I think I'm going to remove the AIR as well, anybody have any suggestions/comments on that?

 

That's a relief, I couldn't understand why the intake manifold would have to come off, but I never worked on an LT-1 before. Although I had started thinking about how I was going to fix that oil leak at the back at the same time. I've replaced plenty of water pumps, so I guess it should be pretty straightforward, huh? of course any other tips would be appreciated. Thanks.