I'll be doing the opti this coming weekend and have a quick question concerning the water pump drive shaft seal on the timing chain cover. The pump is fairly new so I'll only be taking it of and putting it back on. I wouldn't think that it would be necessary to replace the seal that fits into the timing cover unless there is a leak or if it looks bad. Is this correct? I'm going to have a seal on hand just in case but know that it's a PITA to get it on correctly.

BTW I will be changing the optispark cover seal.

Thanks.

 

Well, I just did my Opti this past weekend, here is what I did:

1) I had 113k miles, everything still original (seals, gaskets, Opti and water pump).
2) I did replace the water pump since I know how my luck is and if I did not, it would leak a week later!
3) I did replace the two shaft seals for the water pump (also be sure to keep the sleeve that may either stay stuck on the water pump itself or the shaft in the block). That part is hard to get and very expensive from GM (its what the two splines use to connect to each other). Also, there is a indentation all the way around that sleeve, that goes closest to the engine block.
4) I replaced the Opti oil seal (very easy to do).
5) Even at 113k, I DID NOT replace the water pump seal (I believe that requires removal of the timing cover, did not want to do that).

I have had several hard passes and about 100 miles on it now and it is all good to go! So, it really is up to you, but I did not replace that seal in the timing cover when I did mine, it was dry and looked great (don't fix what ain't broke!).

Good luck!

 

Exactly what I needed to know. Thanks!

 

True, you don,t need to replace it if it is not leaking.
Mine was leaking so we popped it out and put a new one in, it was not near that easy but no need to remove the timing cover.