im in the middle of an elec wp install and i noticed that the wp driveshaft only spins about half a turn and just stops. it doesnt turn more than that. i thought i read somewhere that it should spin freely otherwise its robbing power. am i right or is it not supposed to spin?

 

You mean the stock wp drive shaft right? If your talking about that, that is bad. It should spin very freely. That thing rides on ball bearings. If it is hard to turn it means it grinding something like rocks or metal and the bearing is bad. That thing has to come out. Due to the fact that any grinding will cause particles to get in your motor and cause problems. Take off the timing cover, timing chain, upper sprocket and remove it. Drain the oil first though, and discard it.

 

damn. i thought my water pump had gone out. this is a lot worst. do i really have to take of the timing chain? i hope there isnt any metal parts or shavings in the engine.

 

i forgot to ask if i should plug the block where the shaft is?

 

i got my story all mixed up. im gonna start from the beginning. about a week ago, i changed the oil and put castrol syntec 0w30 german made in for the first time. i got a new tune from bryan at pcmforless and installed it. i turned on my car. let it warm up. took it for a 5 minute drive. did one wot run. cam to a red light a block away from my house. i notice that the temp gauge was at 260. i looked at my scanmaster and it was at 199. so i thought the gauge had gone bad. i pull in to my driveway and i look at the scanmaster again and it said 267. i turned the car off. i got off and noticed that there was coolant coming out of the reservoir. i checked all the hoses and they were fine. i look at the wp and it wasnt wet at all. i let the car sit overnight. i turn it on and in 2 minutes the gauge reads 180 but the scanmaster is still at 80. i turn it off. i replace the radiator cap and check the t-stat and its good. i drain, refill and bleed the cooling system and it still does it. when i turn it on and i look at the coolant in the radiator, it starts to rise and spills. so i turn off the car. i think its the wp so i buy a csi elec wp. i take the old pump off and there is corrosion around the weep hole. i spin the shaft on the wp and the thing in the front also spins. so the wp shaft was still good. i turn the shaft that is on the block and it only spins about half a turn and stops. there is an oil leak coming from the wp seal on the timing cover. its not that big.

so is it the water pump thats bad or is it the shaft on the block that is bad? do i need to take of the shaft on the block or just leave it in?

 

I don't believe it is suppose to turn at all. The little coupler is connected to the part pressed into the block via the spline coupler from the back of the wp. The waterpump drive gear is pressed onto a shaft that is pressed into the block around the lifter valley. The pump gear should only turn when the camshaft is turning. I don't want to rain on your parade there but maybe a few teeth were stripped off the pump gear. Hopefully the cam gear is good. Or possibly the splines stripped and they turn so far and stop.Either way I think ya gotta pull the cover to see whats going on.

 

That's a bummer dude. The water pump shaft is driven off of a gear that sits behind the cam gear. The cam gear has small teeth in it that mesh with the water pump drive gear and the drive gear has a bearing behind it that is pressed into the block. It's gotta come out, if it's turning it's no good and will only leave you with metal in your oil. Oh well, when you have the cover off you can plug the hole for where the shaft came through.

EDIT: Umm yeah, like greenmachine said.

 

oh yea im on crack. It should not move at all. But if it does turn half way and stops that means some teeth are missing and has to come out. Thats odd though. I never heard of that breaking. I'd be really worried where those teeth that broke off went.

 

i finally got around to taking the timing cover off. the water pump drive was missing all the teeth. the cam sprocket was missing some too from where it drives the wp drive. there were some teeth in the timing cover but most of them are in the oil pan. i need to take it off and remove the teeth. i have a few questions. what caused this? did it damage anything else? can i take off the oil pan with the engine in the car? which timing chain should i get since mine is stock? should i put a harmonic dampner for engine life or just keep the underdrive pulley? if so, which one?

 

ttt

 

If you run an electric water pump it should open you up to more options. I believe you can use the standard roller timing sets for small block chevys. Or you could switch to the lt4 extreme duty kit. Then you gotta swap the opti, timing cover.
As to why it is breaking? Possibly too much slack in the chain and with your intial take off,say at W.O.T., you are putting way too much strain on thesmaller teeth on the sprocket and water pump gear. I have heard of people having similiar problems when they switch to the lt4 E.D. kit and not changing the water pump drive. Stock kits are supposedly prone to high rpm failure or so the guys at T.P.I.S say, which they have a replacement for something like $400. I think I'll just stick with my LT4 E.D. kit from Jason which was was only $220 shipped.
Another small thing maybe could be when you had the engine rebuilt. Did you put the small plugs back in ,from the lifter galley, that have the tiny little holes in them. Maybe the gears were starved for oil.

 

by taking off that drive and running an electric wp, that eliminates the possibility of that happening again, right? whats this about running a standard roller sbc chain? can you give me more info on that. ive never heard of that on an lt1.

 

you can use a cloyes SBC chain since you have a CSI. I got mine from Cmotorsports. its around $70. you have to press out the drive from the block, then just use something to plug the hole in the timing chain cover. I used a flat freeze plug thats just oversized and made it a smaller diam. on a bench grinder till it fit, then I JBwelded it in for good measure and good sealing. take your cover with you to the auto parts store and they can size it up. I think I started with a 1 1/4" plug.
and the pan can come off, but you'll either have to lift the eng. off the kmember, or lower the kmember out from under the eng. its a pain, but it can be done, and in your case, it'll def. be worth the extra effort to make sure you get all that crap out before it does any more damage.
chris

 

An electric wp doesnt need that shaft to spin the pump.. it uses an electric motor instead.

You can use a true double roller from Cloyes. They are considerably cheaper yet stronger than anything you can get from GM. But to my knowledge not every chain will fit. You must get the one with part number 3145.

 

and these chains will work with a 94 opti?