i was coming home from my g/f's house and i made my last turn onto my street,pulled up in my driveway and i seen a small puff of what i thought was smoke.it was steam.i got out of my car and immediately smeeled it...COOLANT.i looked under my car and saw a puddle..a small puddle but still a puddle.it was pooring down rain so i didn't crawl under it too look and see exactly where its coming from.im not sure if it's the pump or just the seal.i'll look tomorrow and post it.im just glad i made it home.oh yea im sure it's the pump or the seal and not the heads or any hoses..i saw it coming from the pump

but untill i look tomorrow can anybody tell me:
1. how hard is it to replace the pump or seal
2. what seal should i use/recommend (its an LT-1)
3. are there any write ups on changing one (havent searched yet,too tired im going to bed now)
4. if it is the water pump,should i get electric?i do mild drag but im mostly on the street.


thanx for any help i recieve...i'll jump on here tomorrow and let you know what the verdict is.

 

If you want to get electric, it will help free of some horespower, I will get electric eventually. You can get one for under 200. It isnt to hard to change the gaskets on the water pump. It should take 1-2 hours for an average easy going Joe. Its not hard to figure out, I think 4 mounting bolts... Or if it is coming from the cap, you dont even need to take the water pump off... Just the 6 or so bolts for the cap, and replace the rubber ring gasket.

 

check to see if it's a cap first. The smallest crack will let out pressure! Hopefully it could be a small fix. You gotta move some stuff to get clearance to the water pump.

 

if it is a bad water pump go ahead & change the opti cause it will most likley go next & you will be doing it all over again in a few weeks, it's not that difficult though. once you've done it a few time it should take around a half hour to get everything off. if you have a manual just go by that it's pretty staright forward.

 

well i drove it around to see if i could build up pressure....nothing not the smallest drip of coolant.when i got home i let it set in the driveway for about 30 minutes still nothing.but when i got under the car i can see where it did come out last night out of that little drip hole.so is it the pump or the internal seal?if its the pump ill replace it and the distubutor with a msd.where can i get a new cheap pump?if its the seal,is it hard to replace?whats the part #? thanx all again

 

might as well just get a pump the remanufactured ones are like $55 from autozone but i don't recomend it i've had bad experiences with them. i had one leek right after i put it on, yeah i was pissed. a new one is around $135.

 

Replacing the water pump on one of these is an hours worth of work for someone that's done it before. Expect two hours for your first time. It's really very simple, just time consuming. Make sure to use silicone on the gaskets when you reinstall it, but don't get any in the bolt holes.

Don't bother pulling apart the pump to replace internal components, just buy a new or remanufactured one if you want to go cheap. I'd recommend the AC Delco brand if you're getting reman. Alot of people talk **** about reman components, but I've honestly never had a problem and most are warrantied anyway.

If coolant got all over the distributor, you have a 50/50 chance that some leaked in and ruined it. If you're going to replace that too (which I highly recommend you do at the same time) you can silicone the new one around the edges to prevent that from happening again. Watch out when you install that distributor, it will appear deceptively simple however it is EXTREMELY easy to mess up. The first time I did it I messed it up twice before I finally got it indexed properly.

 

i found the leak.its the seal.i already ordered my pump and opti from summit,but i have a quik question......should i replace the seal and get an electric?its only driven on the weekends and rarely at the track.

 

If you have the cash, I would just get the electric. If you don't, you will just regret it later and will have to rebuy the gaskets and coolant when you do get one.

 

my water pump was leaking on my for a while and i hoped that by ignoring it, it would go away, but it didnt. so i got a reman at auto zone for like 50 bucks and it took a little while. helpful hint, you have to move your AIR pump out of the way which isnt a big deal, but you might want to use some wd-40 on the rubber part of it (you'll see what i mean). the new pump hasnt leaked or anything and its been on for a few months, the cars in storage, but when i start it up every once in a while its fine. no problems with the opti either, and it was leaked on for some time.