Dave S

My water pump is going south, so I thought while replacing it I might also switch to a UDP. After doing the forum search, I'm still a little unsure whether or not to do it. For all you VE guys who have switched to a UDP (particularly the one from ASP), I have 2 questions:

1) Are there really significant gains in performance?

2) Did you notice any more vibration due to the reduction in damping from the lighter pulley?

Thanks very much for any input!

old man

I can let you know soon. My ASP pulley is due here today or tomorrow. It's a good easy mod with a noticable difference, especially for the price. There is really no down side.

Bman

However I've heard that if you run lots of electrical stuff (killer stereo, neons, etc.) this isn't such a great idea since the motor will be spinning the alternator slower than stock, so it won't put out as much juice. Just something I heard a while back, and probably depends on how much slower it spins it (smaller UDP). Yes/No?

eric93SE

iTrader: (1)

Be sure to replace the oil seal behind the pulley, it fails sooner or later and its only like $2.

Dave S: are you doing the work yourself. If so let me know, because it is incredibly difficult to remove the water pump if you have never done it before, its like a contortionist act. I can give you a good idea on how to remove it.

Dave S

Thanks for the tip. Does the seal come out easily? I replaced all 3 on an old Jetta this year, and the method (Haynes) was to drill 2 small holes in the seal flange, screw in 2 screws, and yank it out with pliers!

I was planning to change the pump myself (local dealer wants like $500, and they also recommend the "timing belt" service!) Told him it's a 93 SE, he sez "that's right, the VQ didn't go in until '95, but we still recommend changing the belt! I gave up talking to them after that...

I saw some postings about changing the pump (unbolting the motor mounts and all that). Sounds like a major pita, but I have little choice. Any guidance you could provide would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

dmontzsta

iTrader: (8)

I currently dont have one yet but will soon. I have heard that an UDP is more of an effective power gain then spending $800 on a full exhaust system. You will notice a difference and also. Good luck on the water pump the VE water is a PITA. I took mine off easy but the biggest PITA is finding out how to get it out without unbolting a bunch of crap.Good Luck!

psyclotran

Sorry for the stupid question but..

Are you refering to the main oil seal or is this something else?

eric93SE

iTrader: (1)

Dave: So here we go, yes the seal comes out pretty easy, simply use a flat screwdriver and pry it out. you should be carful not to scratch the metal surface, but if you do its ok b/c the inner pulley is what is spinning and where it must seal.

I'd also reccomend replacing the thermostate, radiator cap, new coolant, belts, and hoses. I did'nt do the hoses yet, I did have to replace that small hose comming out the top of the water pump b/c you need to cut it anyway.

Dave, where ever you read about removing the motor mount, that must be for the vg cause I never ran into it.

I hope you have impact tools, since that bad boy pulley is torqued on big time.

So here I'll give you a list of things I had to remove:::
Upper heater hose, coolant resovior, A/C idler pulley, Alternator, remove compressor from bracket (support it well with blocks underneath so as to not stress the hoses), remove the mounting bracket for the a/c and alt. (If I remmember its the bracket thats in the way of removing the pump), And also if I remmember corectly I removed the mounting arm that attaches to the alt. (not totally necessary but it was somewhat in the way). Also not to mention the pulley on the waterpump itself (the bolts on this pulley are only supposed to be lightly torqued ~5ft/lb's but the pulley wants to spin when I tried to remove them, So I cut out of wood a Wedge to pinch the pulley against another surface so the bolts could be removed esaily.


Now to actually remove the waterpump from the engine bay. It needs to be removed from underneath. Dude I cant tell you how much of a B!tch this was and how long it took to figure out what exactly needed to be removed to get the waterpump out!. OK, so as you are lowering the pulley you need to rotate it 90 degrees, do a little giggling with it and lots of cursing and that bad boy should come out.

Before actually replacing the pump you should practice the motion that you need to go through ( sort of a dry run ) before doing the final install with the silicone, otherwise you'll get silicone on everything except on matting surface.

Good luck dude, the first time is always the toughest. I could probably do it with my eyes closed now (not that thats a good thing or whatever). I hope this helps and feel free to email me if you run into anything. One last thing that I should mention is that my max doesnt have anti-lock brakes. I have seen a friends max w/anti and it looks even more difficult do the job on a max with anti.

Dave S

Eric: thanks for the guidance. Unfortunately, I don't have any air tools, so I'll have to try the old gorilla bar first. Actually, I plan to replace the RF strut boot this weekend, so while I'm in there, I'm going to poke around and make sure it's really the water pump that's leaking. I've read that the freeze plugs can also go bad.

Thanks again!

eric93SE

iTrader: (1)

You can try getting an electric impact wrench, I have heard of other board members use it. I think new they sell for $70-80 the cost of the tool will pay for itself the first time you use it.
unfortunatly using a wrench with long extension will not work since the pulley will simply spin on you. You probably know this, but dont try to hold the pulley with anything to stop it from spinning b/c the pulley is supposedly balanced to within something like 1/2 gram and either maring the surface or bending anything will ruin it. good luck.

My pump went with only like 70k miles on it, I know that sound pretty early. I bought the car with 50k on it back in 99'. I think it has to do with how much harder I drive the car which is what lead to the shortened life of the pump seal.

Dave S

Well, I was planning to use my nylon strap wrench to hold the pulley, but you're probably right about not damaging it. I hadn't thought about an electric impact wrench - that would be pretty handy to have, if I can find one. Thanks for the tip!