the waterpump isnt driven by the opti, its driven by the flux capacitor!...

yeah dude, the opti has absolutely nothing to do with the water pump. there is a gear that is driven by the cam that drives the water pump. however, installing the opti wrong will make your car run like crap and i'm sure you would notice this... anyways, off the opti talk!

if you dont want to go electric, your just gonna have to try another mechanical pump. dont buy a pump from autozone and keep your fingers crossed on the next install. worse case scenario, use bubble gum to plug up that dang weephole if it leaks again .

btw- make sure you bleed the sytem in your car really well. make sure you get all the air out. also, check for other water leaks that could be causing you to lose coolant and then causing the pump to run dry. are you ever getting a low coolant light?

 

Couple of things you should do.

1) Smear a very thin coat of ultra blue permatex on both sides of the water pump gasket before you install it.

2) Put thread sealant on the bolts going into the water jacket.

If all else fails, get a Meizere.

p.s. Add water through the tstat to the pump before you start it up.

 

Thanks for all the replies guys. I'm at work right now so I will have to wait. I installed my pump i got from napa last night bled all the air out and bought a 16 psi cap. I will run it when i get home. Hopefully this pump doesnt fail, I'm sick of this water pump issue, and I just want to get back to modding. I used rtv on the gasket on the pump side just so it wouldnt slide off the surface. And i always use teflon pipe dope on all the bolts as well. Would plugging the weep hole w/ bubble gum be a bad idea? Seems reasonable to me?.

And actually my low coolant light comes on sometimes. But the coolant level is fine. I've heard those sensors are kind of wack sometimes anyway so i dont pay attention to it.

Zach Horn

 

I've seen people epoxy a rubber tube to the weephole to direct water away from the opti.

 

Well, this just in. I got the new pump together ran it for 15 minutes or so. Drove it around the country block, come back and the [edit] is still leaking.
I cant tell where from. There is some coolant coming off of the bottom of the timing cover, and a little stain around the weep hole. What the hell am i doing wrong. Do you guys think maybe that is just coolant from when i drained and filled it? Just laying in some kind of crevis? Im hoping thats what it is, other wise Im fresh out of ideas . This cooling issue is really getting to me, this is my 4th or 5th pump. I lost track. Help me out.

Zach Horn

 

How much coolant is it?

The overflow container also leaks water under the battery when you first fill the rad making you think its leaking from somewhere else.

Make sure all your bleeders are closed. I'm assuming you tightened the bolts down to specs (first just 5 ft lb and then later the full amount)

If you take the pump off again, silicone the cap of the opti to the back of it along the seam so that no water gets in. Also silicone around the electrical connector going to the PCM. Also silicone a tube to the weep hole directing water away from the opti.

 

Not alot of coolant. I noticed a few drops under the timing cover, (appeared to be dripping off the bottom of the timing cover) after a beat run w/ it.
Do you think maybe there is some coolant floating around in some crevis somewhere? I'm tempted to just drive it anyway. There is no way in hell i can get 4 bad pumps in a row. What else can it be?

Zach Horn

 

for the record, the bubble gum thing was a joke

it seems a little impractical that you burnt out a pump within 15 minutes. its more than likely leaking somewhere else around the housing. or at least thats my opinion.

what kind of water pump gaskets are you using? i had some bad luck with the cheap ones when i tried to use them. i went with the felpro gaskets and they work great. also, make sure both block and water pump mounting surfaces are extremely clean.

make sure your torquing the bolts down to their proper specs and like how grip mentioned. 5 ftlbs for all bolts first and then torque down the bolts the rest of the way. make sure the threads on the bolts and in the block are clean before applying thread sealant to the bolts and installing. clean threads help maintain proper torque.

 

Completely dry off the edges of the waterpump with a papertowel and anywhere else that has coolant.

Drive it for 15 mins and recheck the edges of the pump for leaks. If it leaks, coat both sides of the gasket with ultra blue. Let it dry for a few hours before driving it.

Make sure all the hoses are tight too. Coolant could be dripping from a cracked hose or loose clamp. It would drip down to the timing cover.

 

Okay I opened the box to the remanufactured water pump and just for ****s and giggles spun the gear on the back. Well it was kind of tough to turn. I went home installed it and spun the afterwards while I was filling the water in the radiator I spun the old water pump and it was soooo much easier than the new one.

**I didn't think too much of it until now that I am having extreme overheating problems with the car. I've bled the crap out of the system until the steam is replaced by water stream and the radiator is full and the resevoir is full. I'm going to try again tomorrow morning and hope it stays cool and if not bleed it some more.**

Anyway, back on subject, if the pump turns out to be bad, would being harder to spin than the stock pump have been a tell-tale sign of a bad replacement pump? Or am I over thinking this too much and that's the way new pumps are?

 

when i replaced my old waterpump, the new one was pretty hard to turn compared to the old one. i figured that it would eventually just break. after i did my cam swap i turned the waterpump and it was a lot easier to turn. i dont think thats your problem. after about 2 weeks my new one started dripping slightly. i just dont care anymore. my car doesnt overheat or anything so i just gave up. and the weep hole is toward the front of the opti so its not going to hurt it.

you did say you changed your radiator cap to a 16lb one. that could give you some problems since you need a 18lb cap.[/QUOTE]

 

I used some marine gasket sealing compound.

 

First, plugging the weep hole will just destroy bearings faster… there is always going to be some water getting past the seal and the weep hole keeps it out of the bearings.

Second, you shouldn’t need anything on those gaskets for them to seal, and rtv is generally a bad idea on gaskets. RTV is meant to seal where there is no gasket, and when applied to a gasket it’s slippery and causes them to move around. What can happen is that lubrication is just enough to force a thinner part of the gasket out as you tighten the bolts. If you insist on putting something on gaskets use either a proper gasket dressing or something sticky like hylomar, and if you want to use RTV then skip the gasket.

Cap… lower pressure isn’t going to hurt it, and without bad bearings, the pump seals and most of the gaskets should be able to withstand 2x the stock pressure, so I doubt that is it unless something is _really_ wrong.

It is possible that you’re destroying pump seals by running straight water or having air bubbles in the system, but probably not in 15 minutes. If I was going to guess without taking a good, hard look, I would guess that you have something in the way or not assembled correctly that is preventing you from getting the water pump snugged down correctly. The only other thing that I could think of is that possibly you have something solid circulating through your cooling system? I have seen pump seals go on a more traditional setup when part of the spring that they used to put inside the lower hose on older cars got sucked up into the pump.

Have you taken apart any of the failed pumps to see where/why they were actually leaking?

 

I just did my 96 Vette yesterday & was going through the same problems ~ in my case it was the new thermostat leaking around the back side and running down the block (I installed the new thermostat & silicone around housing ~ the 96 Service manual had the wrong torque 98 in/lb ~ I took it apart, cleaned & used a old style gasket & torqued to 18 Ft/lb ~ problem solved) I also for some reason had a ton of air in my system. Bottom line is you need to SEE where the leak is coming from. Dry everything off real good. Put the car up on stands & run it & locate the leak ~ else you are shooting in the dark

 

89 lb. in. is the correct torque for the thermostat housing. You are very lucky you did not snap a bolt (many other people have, as the torque value is printed wrong in many manuals). The housing and pump are precisely machined and meant to be installed without a gasket and only a rubber ring around the thermostat.