Hi guys!

With a lot of help from this site, I just wrapped up my water pump replacement. Start to finish, it took about 6 hours, everything seems to be running well, but I have a couple questions.

I drained my oil before I pulled the water pump out. After I installed the new pump, I drained the oil again and then refilled it. My oil is still milky light brown in color. Do I just need to drain and refill again, or is this a sign I didn't do it right?

The anti-freeze is not going down in the radiator. I took it out for a quick drive around the block, the heat works, but the radiator is still full. I let it idle til it warmed up in the garage, the heat didn't work well, and the radiator fans came on. I figured after I drove it around some, the level would drop.

I somehow managed to strip out the threads in the block for two of the three bolts. I don't know how I did this, I was just barely touching the ratchet. The top and bottom threads stripped out. The bolts just came out with some metal shavings on them. The bolts looked OK, no damage to the threads. The weird part is on the bottom bolt, I had turned it at least four full turns before it stripped out. I ran and bought some slightly longer bolts, as the old ones would not longer reach the threads, and those seemed to work OK. I wasn't sure when I had the pump all the way in. I kept tightening each bolt 1/2 turn at a time until they all felt snug.

Now on to my one big tip I discovered. I went to harbor freight to get some clips to hold back the tensioner, and found these:


Rare earth magnets. I figured I could put them on the inside of the socket to hang on to the bolts. Turns out, they fit perfectly inside the recess of the bolt head. The outer ring of the bolt locks them in firmly. I put the magnet on the bolt, and the bolt in the socket, and I can shake it upside down without fall out. The magnets always stayed on the bolt, I took the socket on and off the bolt at least 20 times while tightening the water pump. All the magnets stayed on, and I could feel the pull of the magnet to guide the socket toward the bolt. This made it so much easier to get the bolts back in. The magnets fit almost flush, so I left couple of them on the bolts, They are not going anywhere. If you want them out, just pop them off with a small flathead, they will stick to the screwdriver.

 

Wow a magnet coil thread.

 

I just hope you used a OEM pump or you'll be doing the job again.

 

If my tip saves someone from losing a bolt in the timing cover, its worth it. I don't know how people do it without having anything to hold the bolts in the socket.

I was wondering about the coolant. I saw the level went down some, but not as much I hoped it would. I'm used to seeing the radiator half empty itself as soon as the thermostat opens. No overheating so far so good.

 

The radiator should be full at all times regardless of the thermostat and the water pump installation.

 

... masking tape.

A nice glob of Vaseline inside the socket works well too.