Holy Crap !!! You guys who did the water pump change are right. Damn I can't that damn thing out !!! Me and my dad started on it yesterday at around noon. Had to stop a couple of times to get some more tools. Thanks to my friends at NAPA, I was able to get any tool I needed, including the electric impact wrench. Anyway, when we got to the, the um, damn, can't think of the name of the pulley. Anyway, when we got to the BIG pulley, nobody told me I was gonna need a pulley puller, or what me and my dad used, a Harmonic Balancer Puller. So we had to go back to NAPA. Got that off and I was ready to "lay" up under the car. Well, now my dad doesn't trust just the jack being under the car. Now we need to get some jack stands. Oh boy, here we go, back to NAPA again. Anyway, we finally get the water pump unbolted. Oh, little side note, the 4 little bolts on the water pump, I think those were the damnedest bolts to ever get off. Took me and my dad about 30 mins just for those 4 bolts off. So anyway, we get the bolts out, now the extraction !! I break the seal and there's water everywhere, I did this with my eyes closed. Anyway, I got the word document from someone's site, I am bad with names, and it said to remove the motor mount and jack the car up. Okay, well, my dad said we should just be able to jack up the car without removing the motor mount, because the motor should go up enough anyway. Okay so we try this. DAMN !! Now the damn thing is STUCK !! Well, at this point, it's starting to get dark and the wind is blowing at about 15mph and it is COLD. So we had to stop right there. Anyway, we are going to get started back on it again today when it warms up a bit. I will let you know how it went.

Oh another side note: I will write up some instructions on this also because there were some differences in the Word doc from what I have experienced already. Maybe it's because I have a 5 speed, SE, VE30DE. I think the other guy had a automatic GXE. But like I said, I will write it and post it somewhere.

One more thing, WHERE IS THE THERMOSTAT??

 

Wow, that sucks. I hope mine doesn't go anytime soon. Good luck! By the way, the thermostat is located on the other side of the engine (where the lower radiator hose goes into the engine).

 

Man I know how you feel, I did mine in october with no instructions. What an experience that was but know you'll be the wiser for it. I hope you got new belts and hoses while youre at it cause you wanna do these types of things once and they dont cost that much!!

By the way: I think you were refering to the CRANK pulley. LOL

good luck man

 

SUCCESS !!! Boy I feel like a "real" mechanic now !! Guess what? I didn't pull the water pump out from the bottom, I pulled it out from the top and back in from the top !! After I posted the message this morning and went back to my dad's house, we decided to go at it from the top. Took us about 20 mins to wiggle it right out. And took about 3 mins, yes 3 (three) minutes to put it back in. Took us about 45 - 60 mins to get everything back on and tightened.

I will write up some tips later on when I get to work and have absolutely nothing to do. I have about 20 - 30 pics of the whole process. My dad was getting upset about that, but oh well, we got it done, pics and all.

Will post later from work.

 

You should have done some searching before starting. Me and Bryan (91 SE) had the same problems and he even did a really nice write-up on it. Boy that sucker was a pain...

 

Yeah, Bryan's document. I followed that but there were a few things that were different. Here are a few things that I found that were different.

1) You only need to loosen one pivot bolt on the alternator, the one on the bottom. There weren't even two bolts on top like in the document.

2) The document left out that the tensioner bolt for the power steering/water pump belt needs to be turned clockwise to loosen the tension.

3) The socket size for the crankshaft pulley is 1 1/16.

4) The 4 little bolts on the water pump is 10mm not 8mm.

5) I did not have to remove any motor mounts. I just jacked up the car with a second jack under the oil pan. Jacked it up about 7-10 pumps.

6) I removed the water pump from the top with EASE. Getting it back in was even easier (only took 3 mins to get it in).

7)My water pump came with a gasket. Guess I was lucky.

Now don't get me wrong here, I am not saying anything bad about Bryan's document. Without IT, I would have NEVER tried to do this. I am just pointing out some stuff that I came across that might help others. As a matter of fact, I am hoping James will include what I have encountered into his document. Like I said earlier, I have about 20-30 pics from start to finish. If anyone wants them, let me know, they are digital pics and are ready to be sent or posted.

I would like to give a big THANKS to Bryan and I guess you too, James, for the document. Email me, I got something for both of you. swallace@sc.rr.com

 

Dude the water pump and engine bays are way different for the vg and ve, So you should have gotten directions from someone who had the same engine...lol

 

Bryan has a 91SE but this writeup was for when he worked on his gf's car, a 92SE
VE POWER!!

Sydney, send an email to Bryan (not sure his address but it's somewhere on his page) and I'm sure he'd update the document and love to add those pics.
If not, send them my way and I'll add them to my how-to

 

Yes, sorry I missed this thread. Even with the VE's, it looks like there is a slight difference in room in the engine bay from the auto VE and the 5 sp. VE. I had no prayer of getting my pump out without taking the motor mounts off and moving the engine over. Even then, I still couldn't get it up through the top and had to drop it down. I'm waiting for Sidney to send me the word document. Maybe he took the bolts off the motor mounts on the cross member and jacked the engine upward to get it off through the top? In any case, I think we are going to get his pictures on that document with the differences and have it up on my site soon.