For future reference there is no need to drain the block or screw with the drain plugs
GASP
That's right... that's what I typed...
The optispark is off the block by a good few inches since it's bolted to the timing cover. That means when you break the w/p bolts loose all you need to do is control the flow of coolant. Get yourself a drip pan (which will aid considerably with the splatter involved with draining coolant). So wiggle on the w/p until the seal is broken and let it drain out of the block ports. When finished there will still be some just on the edge of coming out of the ports so simply lower the car a little bit and then jack it back where it was. That way the ports are now free from coolant.
Once again if you control the flow of coolant then all it will do is trickle down the block and far away from the optispark.
Just FYI...

 

Drain radiator, pull the lower right hand bolt out of the water pump(from the front) and the rest of the coolant will drain out, jack rear of car up if ya really want to make sure enough is out.

Pull water pump, replace water pump.


DONE!, COld Beer



David

 

its not hard. on the right of the water pump where the air pump connects there is a double pronged bolt. it has a nut that holds the air pump to the the water pump and there is the actuall bolt the holds the water pump to the block.

 

All this is figured out, look at my other post thats the new problem

 

I'm usually pretty good about researching things before I dive into them..especially back in the day when I had my jeep and constantly beat on it.

But having this be exam week, and then the internet being out for a week because of lightning, and the deadline of having the car ready for saturday to get back home for a wedding didnt give me much time to prepare

and on top of that I kept reading "I did the pump in 30 minutes" when I used the search function, so I didnt think it was too involved.

haha

this post was pretty much just a vent. It was just one of those days where it was humid and hot, and we're doing it in the parking lot and things are just a mess. I wasn't planning on pulling/moving all the things we did and the haynes didnt really help at all.

We blazed through it putting it back together though and I bet I could probably get it done MUCH faster now that I know all the tricks and stuff that needs to move.

But I do beleive we fudged up when we added the coolant

I think theres probably a lot of air in the system, but after a test drive and a race against an 03 cobra, things were runnin fine so who knows.

Thanks for all your help though

 

Werd. I've never drained the block to do a WP/opti swap.

 

I did drain my block to the point where coolant was no longer coming out the front of the engine. There are probably alternative approaches to prevent that from happening.

 

Maybe the beer was flowing BEFORE the coolant was

 

Hmm, wouldn't this be a good place to start a project like this : http://shbox.com/1/how_tos.html

 

-Dustin-

 

i followed this site and did an opti and waterpump in 4 hours...
http://www.houston-f-body.org/tech/optispark/