Saturn Forum - Saturn Enthusiasts Forums - Coolant leak, water pump replace

I noticed last week I was losing coolant but couldn't figure out where. Each day it got worse and with a 4hr trip coming up tomorrow I decided that with Christmas over I needed to figure out what was going on no matter that it was always dark and rainy when I wasn't working or sleeping lately. I was finally able to trace the leak to the water pump but it sure didn't seem to be leaking enough to cause that much loss. The real clue was the coolant residue on the engine side of the serpentine belt and inside the pulleys.

Time was tight and money scarce so I picked up a cheap Chinese pump from A.Z. and some overpriced coolant. I still had a half-dried tube of sealant at home I thought I could use. I did pick up a good, new Dayco belt that will probably outlast the new pump. I figure in a year or so I'll be replacing this pump again and I'll be doing the timing chain and all hoses then too but that's for later.

The fun was when I got home with the parts and had to find a place to work. My F250 is still stuck in the best spot in the gravel driveway for level working. I found I could pull up alongside my easy-up shelter, parking right on the gravel walk and I spread the one wall out over the car. Set up my work light (two extension cords in the wet grass) and was ready to start. My one consolation is that the weather had warmed up yesterday so I was able to work in relative comfort for a change. It did take me an hour or so to round up enough tools to do the job since they were scattered all over creation due to all the interrupted projects.

I had read a how-to earlier and kind of knew what was coming. Those bolts that hold the pulley to the water pump are the big challenge since you either have to have a special tool to hold the pulley in place or get real creative. After pulling the wheel and splash covers off I had somewhat adequate access to the pump. I could also see that the pump was much worse than I thought. I could wiggle the pulley quite a bit and coolant poured out when I did!
I managed to get one bolt out by jamming a brake spoon in the crank pulley to keep it from turning and wedging a bolt in a hole in the block under the WP to push the belt tighter on the pulley. The other bolts just wouldn't budge and it kept knocking the crank wedge loose and I didn't like how it would turn the crank backwards a dozen degrees before I could stop (don't need timing chain problems now). Then I rounded the heads on both remaining bolts. :mad: I remembered someone saying if you get creative you can remove the pump with the pulley attached. Well, it turns out that if you pull the A/C compressor out of the way along with the front bracket you will indeed have exactly enough room to wrestle a flat wrench behind the pulley and remove the bolts holding the pump to the block. Takes strong fingers, good calluses and lots of patience.
When I finally got the pump off I then had to figure out what to do about those rounded bolts. I needed the pulley intact and on the new pump but they weren't coming off with a wrench or socket anymore. I remembered when I took the A/C off that there were 4 bolts that looked similar to these. I checked and sure enough, they're the same type bolts. Well, I'm not using my A/C right now and I could spare 3 of the 4 for the water pump until I can replace them later. I probably bugged the heck out of my neighbors last night running my grinder out on the deck at midnight but that's how I got those bolts off.
Reassembly was almost text book perfect and I did have enough RTV for the job (it doesn't take much).

On startup the timing chain and a couple lifters were kind of noisy and worried me but after it warmed up they quieted down and everything sounded good. No recurrence of that noise either.
No leaks, squeaks or strange turbo whine anymore. Yeah, that whine was from how bad the water pump bearing was.

3am and back on the road!