Need step-by-step water-pump change

[oldad]

Hi All, we have a 2001 Taurus LX OHV and I think the water pump is bad & needs to be replaced. The radiator fluid was spraying out of a small hole in the overflow bottle. After we changed the overflow bottle the leak was still there. Took another look and see radiator fluid coming out of the water pump weep hole. Can't find my Haynes manual and don't want to spend all day looking for it. Does someone have a step-by-step on how to change out the water pump?(pictures would be nice too). I am also going to look at the hoses and probably change out the thermostat as well (or should I leave it alone). Also, in checking the past threads on water pump repairs, I saw a few threads that mentioned flushing out the heater. Is this necessary and How would I do that? Once again I appreciate all the help and advice and I want to thank everyone in advance for their assistance.

[soundu]

Originally Posted by oldad

Hi All, we have a 2001 Taurus LX OHV and I think the water pump is bad & needs to be replaced. The radiator fluid was spraying out of a small hole in the overflow bottle. After we changed the overflow bottle the leak was still there. Took another look and see radiator fluid coming out of the water pump weep hole. Can't find my Haynes manual and don't want to spend all day looking for it. Does someone have a step-by-step on how to change out the water pump?(pictures would be nice too). I am also going to look at the hoses and probably change out the thermostat as well (or should I leave it alone). Also, in checking the past threads on water pump repairs, I saw a few threads that mentioned flushing out the heater. Is this necessary and How would I do that? Once again I appreciate all the help and advice and I want to thank everyone in advance for their assistance.

Its not brain surgery, but you do have to be careful and take your time. Hopefully, you don't have a bad head gasket which is still a good possibility. Remove the degass tank. This will buy you some space to get the pump off. Before you remove the serp belt, loosen the 4 bolts that hold the water pump pulley on. Don't remove them yet, just break them loose. With the serp belt putting tension on the pulley, its a lot easier breaking them loose this way. Remove the serp belt. I think the tensioner or idler wheel have to come off to to get to the pump. Remove the water pump pulley. Remove the small bolts off the water pump. Be extra careful on the small 8MM bolts. You snap one off, and you will be in deep guano. Pull the pump off. Clean the mount surface with razer blade or such of all old gasket material. Put new gasket on and re assemble. I use a light coat of RTV when i do it. What i would do ( and have done) is to use a garden hose and nossle to flush out the block while you have the water pump off. You can squirt directly into the side of the block with the pump off. Flush the heater core while your at it. If you refill it and it pukes again, your head gasket is probably bad. Look closely for any other coolant leaks

[oldad]

Thanks for the quick reply. Good tip on loosening the water pump bolts BEFORE removing the serpentine belt. The car never ran hot so I don't think (hope) the head gasket is toast. Is it possible the head gasket could go if the water temp gauge never peaked, nor ever got past the middle of the gauge? This all started will the car spitting out the radiator fluid after a short drive. My son saw the little hole in the overflow bottle & we thought that the radiator must have been loosing pressure and boiling over at a lower temp because the system wasn't under the pressure(needed to be able to heat the coolant to a higher temp without boil-over). Now that we changed out the overflow bottle there is a radiator fluid leak after running the car for a few mins. I checked and see fluid at the weep hole so I figure that should be next to change. What is a good way to tell if the head gasket is gone? It's kind of strange with the domino effect going on(ie; 1st the overflow bottle, fix that and now the weep hole leak). Thoughts??

[downhill]

There is a step by step in the Topic Finder of you take a peek. Soundu summed it up well. If you get the belt and tensioners out of way and start with out belt you can check and make sure timing cover is not leaking too!! You can warm car up enough to get some pressure on the system to double check before you start pulling parts. I had a bad pump gasket after 112K on one I bought and the timing cover was leaking too!! Hard job but necessary!
Good luck. Put in a new one, they are worth it. I found one new for $35 at Napa. NOT Chinese junk!

[oldad]

Thanks again for the help. I'm probably missing it but I couldn't find a link under the "topic Finder" for the Vulcan water pump step-by-step. I saw the one for the Duratec, but our 2001 LX has the Vulcan engine, although I might be wrong. Can you post the link to the step-by-step in a reply? That would be very helpful! And am I correct in thinking that the water pump is external to the engine, even though we have to remove the serpentine belt and move the alternator & idler pulley to access it. My brother was telling me it is an internal water pump which I told him to be wrong. Again thanks in advance for all the help and assistance you can offer.

[downhill]

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OK, I bumped it, so it should be right below this post.

WATER PUMP posted by dmart12


diy instructions.

disconnect neg. battery cable.
open radiator petcock(driver's side) or remove lower radiator hose from radiator.
drain coolant.
take 8 or 10mm wrench(I've seen both), loosen w/p pulley bolts.
remove serpentine belt.
remove 4 bolts from pulley and remove pulley.
remove small bracket from top of alternator(8mm wrench).
remove 13mm bolt from alternator and loosen 15mm bolt on alternator then flip alternator out of way, slightly snug the 15mm bolt.
remove 7 8mm bolts holding water pump. there is one directly center beneath the shaft(hard to see) do not forget this!!
remove 4 13mm bolts holding water pump (2 each side).
remove water pump (tap lightly with hammer usually).
clean all remnants of old gasket material.
reverse for install.


that's basically it off the top of my head.

This was posted by a late member and is the correct sequence of events for the repair.
downhill

[soundu]

Originally Posted by oldad

Thanks for the quick reply. Good tip on loosening the water pump bolts BEFORE removing the serpentine belt. The car never ran hot so I don't think (hope) the head gasket is toast. Is it possible the head gasket could go if the water temp gauge never peaked, nor ever got past the middle of the gauge? This all started will the car spitting out the radiator fluid after a short drive. My son saw the little hole in the overflow bottle & we thought that the radiator must have been loosing pressure and boiling over at a lower temp because the system wasn't under the pressure(needed to be able to heat the coolant to a higher temp without boil-over). Now that we changed out the overflow bottle there is a radiator fluid leak after running the car for a few mins. I checked and see fluid at the weep hole so I figure that should be next to change. What is a good way to tell if the head gasket is gone? It's kind of strange with the domino effect going on(ie; 1st the overflow bottle, fix that and now the weep hole leak). Thoughts??

If the coolant system is leaking, it won't hold pressure and it will prematurely puke. What i would do after the pump change is warm it up to whatever is normal on the temp gauge an shut it off. Open the hood and inspect closely. Listen for any hissing noises and try to locate. Look for any wisps of water vapor or steam. This is how I found the leak on my GEN3's heater core bypass hoses T fitting. The other thing i have done is build a ghetto water pressure gauge. It will cost you about $20 or so in harbor freight parts. Get a raw pressure gauge. It does not have to go very high. I think the cap vents at 16lbs or so. I then got a brass T fitting, screwed it on to the gauge, and put two hose barb fittings on both ends of the T. I then inserted this Rube Goldberg contraption on the small hose fitting going to the degass tank. You going to need a short piece of small hose and a few hose clamps to make it all happen. That way you don't have to cut the original small hose and can restore it when your done. You can leave this inserted while you drive, and periodically open the hood and check what the pressure is. If you find no leaks, and its bubbling in the degass tank and puking, its probably head gasket time. There are combustion gas kits you can get to confirm this, but if you get to this point its almost a sure thing. Very common in the newer Vulcan. If thats the case, the heads have to come off and get redone or replaced. If your lucky, there not cracked. Some people just buy a set of pre rebuilt ones off Ebay for $300 or so. Kind of depends on the machine shops in your area on which way to go. Of course, new head bolts and a top end gasket set are needed also. And that will give you and excuse to clean all the crud out of the intake plenum. Fel-Pro ES72174 Stretch Head Bolt Set | eBay Fel-Pro HS9885PT3 Head Set | eBay FORD RANGER TAURUS SABLE 3.0 CYLINDER HEADS PAIR | eBay You could also roll the dice and get a used set from a Upull yard, or clean up and reuse yours if it looks like they are not warped or cracked.

[brd7666]

Maybe this will help.

[ulyyoung]

As for checking your head gasket, you can usually take your dipstick, and get another car that is running and HOT. Drop a few drops of oil from your dipstick on it and see what it does. Oil does not boil, it burns, so if it sizzles, you have water in your oil. If it just kind of seeps and smokes you are in good shape.

Overall changing water pump alone is easy job, much easier then front cover assembly. (Which by the way can also lead to you getting water in your oil...) The only true way to check for a blown head gasket is by using a "Combustion Leak Test Kit" which actually checks for exhaust gasses in your coolant system. (Which means your head gasket is bad or you have a crack in your head.)

[rickpark]

I documented a water pump R&R as well as timing chain cover gasket R/R in this wiki.