battlestylespl

iTrader: (2)

So...i've had a coolant leak for a few months now but it's been barely anything since i check the coolant level everyday.

Anyway, with the need to drive the car like 600 miles I've decided it was finally time. After 4 hours of futzing around taking stuff off to make more room and spending an eternity so it seemed removing the pass side engine mount and it's many pieces I finally get to the nitty gritty and get the two covers off. spent like 20 minutes trying to get the damn plunger on the TC tensioner in far enough to put a pin in there to hold it and then back the crank up i remove the pump bolts find some longer ones to extract it....

That's when my day starts becoming long. I get the two bolts snugged up and start doing them 1/2 turn by 1/2 turn and then....the head snaps off of one of the longer bolts....a brand new bolt....so now I don't know what to do.

If I could get the pump out, there is enough of the snapped off part left in there where I would be able to get it out, but there lies the problem, how the hell do I get out the water pump? I tried a channel lock with no success due to the issue of having no room to work it.

I need some ideas here, time is running out and I need to get this done.

Please Help!

ps, the VQpower article about changing the water pump states there are 4 bolts holding it in...I only found three and my new pump only has holes for 3.

maxgtr2000

iTrader: (29)

Is there anyone that can help you pull the whole motor? It would probably save you more time and you be able to extract the bolts properly and get everything fixed back up.

pmohr

iTrader: (26)

Pulling the motor seems a bit extreme, for now. FWIW this is why you wait until you have a fair amount of time in case of screwups if it's your first time doing any particular 'major' job.

OP: Exactly what type of bolts did you use? If you used the same size and thread pitch as the water pump mounting bolts (M6x1), that's why the head broke off; the bolts bottomed out in the timing cover.

These are the type of bolts you need (M8x1.25):


If you can start trying to jack the pump out with the one that didn't break, and prying on the gear on the side that did break, you might be able to coax it out of there.

Which of them did you break?

battlestylespl

iTrader: (2)

By running out of time I meant before I turn into a raving lunatic and doing something stupid, like selling the car. lol

It's not really the first major thing I've done, I did the SR swap on my 240 all by myself, dropped engines out of numerous cars, and have done more water pump jobs than I care to remember, the most ***** of a one being on a VG30E in my 3rd Gen.....until now.

If it comes to dropping the engine I guess I'll have to as i'm not doing this job with a jack and jackstands. But I guess I did apparently use the wrong bolts to extract it. arg...gonna hev to go get some now and try and get it out. i'll post back if that doesn't result in anything good.

battlestylespl

iTrader: (2)

Well the pump is out...actually came out fairly easily with the right bolts...yeah. No luck on the snapped bolt though, i bought an extracter but i have to rent a right angle drill in the morning, seems like its the only thing that is gonna work. tried it with like 10 different types of pliers and vise grips and couldn't get a good bite on it due to lack of room.

tnfisher

I had the same tensioner issues. Ended up taking it out to get slack. I have the pump loose, but can't figure out how to get it past the chain, Did you push the chain out of the way before starting to pull out the pump with the bolts? thx

pmohr

iTrader: (26)

No need to post in two seperate threads.

Of course you have to take the tensioner out. Did you rotate the crank to get slack on the water pump side?

Yes, you need to get the chain out of the way in order to get the pump out.