water pump

[SinisterZ26]

hey people! i was wondering. how hard is it to change a water pump on a '95 beretta Z26. i would personally think it wouldnt be that taxing but a friend at work was telling me something about the timing chain cover coming loose after the water pumps bolts are removed.? any truth to this? if so then any suggestions on how to prevent this from happening. thanks all!!!

Peace,
Phil

[bszopi]

I just did mine a couple weeks ago and it wasn't bad at all. And no, the timing chain cover does not come loose. He either did it wrong, or is talking about a totally different engine design.

[19Cutlass94]

Theres only like 6 8mm bolts that hold the WP in place. It is very easy to replace. I find the hardest part is taking the pulley off if you dont have an air gun.

[3100 MPFI]

it almost sounds like he is thinking about the QUAD 4. We need to do the waterpump in my Grandmothers 1999 Grand Am with the 2.4 Twin Cam, and the waterpump is run off of the timing chain.

If he has a V6 in there, then the waterpump bolts don't even hold the timing cover onto the engine. The waterpump bolts only hold the waterpump to the cover. If you look at the engine, you can see that most of the upper part of the waterpump is over the head.

If you look below the power steering pump, you will see bolts in a horseshoe shape. Those are the ones that hold the timing cover on.

Front of the cover:


Rear of the cover:


As you can see, the main bolts that hold the timing cover on, don't even come close to the back of the waterpump. This is a 3100 timing cover, but the 3.1 is almost identical. If he is talking about a V6, then no way. If he is talking about the 4 banger, I can see it happening.

[IanSzgatti]

actually the hardest part is scraping off the old gasket material... i've always hated that part.

[nixtux]

The biggest issue I had was the dealer that rebuilt the motor (in late 2000,) stripped the f'n bolts so I had to drill one out and replace the pulley.

Typically I would fault myself but in this case I was fairly certain they wouldn't come out (though /w a new 10mm socket I did get three of them after torching the bolts for around 30-45 seconds first.) I torched cause it was cold out (25F -4C,) and I figured it'd help to get some torque.

FYI, the engine was out of the car for the procedure; putting on new flex plate and transmission in. (the dealer also over torqued the flexplate/torque converter bolts so my flexplate is chewed to hell.)

I always thought the starter was going out when it wouldn't start w/o cycling the ignition (it's done it a couple times a month for years.) Turns out it was just blocks of teeth missing on the flex plate.