The excellent Mr. Clean and Brian H. stopped in this Sunday, despite two inches of snow, to help motivate me enough to tear down the coolant system on Peer Pressure and see what’s what. One of the things holding me back has been my inexperience with this particular section of the engine, and my fear that I’d get it pulled apart without knowing how to get it back together again.
With three sets of hands, we made short work of the pulleys and hoses, and had the water pump separated from the engine within an hour. What we found was confounding: there was no gasket on it at all—just a hint of RTV. The impellers were still shiny gold. Could this be the reason for the intermittent leaks?
The consensus was that if it’s not the water pump gasket, the next thing to check will be the thermostat, which means tearing down the top coolant hose and outlet. New thermostats are inexpensive, so that’s not as daunting a job as the water pump is.
While we had the fan off, we figured we’d put the fan shroud on in order to get it ready for fabricating a new mount, which went well. We pulled the clutch portion of the fan off, after remounting the pump, and carefully eased everything back in place. I think that a few carefully cut sections of steel will tie things up perfectly.
So, while she’s not ready for the road, she’s closer than before. Thanks guys!
Evil Mr. Clean says:
Always my pleasure to help a Scout in need. :-)