Never been so glad to have a coolant leak...

[geekinavette]

...upon removal of the leaking water pump I found this:

Luckily I caught it before it started digging a hole into the timing chain cover!

<sigh> always something...


Bill

 

[milehigreg]

Sometimes we get lucky

Hi Bill. Last spring, my baby developed a noise that I eventually determined was the bearing going out on the water pump. The weekend after I went on an 80 mile fun run up 285, I pulled her out of the garage and parked out on the street so I could use the garage to change the oil in the wife's Beetle. When I went back out front to move her ( the Vette ) back into the garage, there was antifreeze everywhere. ;worship Praise the Lord and pass the socket wrench! I wasn't stranded in the middle of nowhere. I got my new water pump from thepartsladi on ebay. Original ACDelco for I believe $139. The front of my engine is now spotless. Can't do a project without cleaning as I go!:eyerole

 

[DRTH VTR]

Bill-
Educate me. What am I seeing there? Are there metal shavings?
Jim

 

[Pseudomind]

Bill-
Educate me. What am I seeing there? Are there metal shavings?
Jim

I will second that request. Just exactly what should I be seeing here. Maybe I see it but cannot see the forest for the trees?

 

[muddywaters]

Looks like the harmonic balancer is seperating. My 79 did the exact thing......

 

[gmjunkie]

Looks like the harmonic balancer is seperating. My 79 did the exact thing......

Right you are!!!!

 

[Pseudomind]

How can you tell? By the widening of the ridge just above the letters something MC in the photo?

And I know the word "Harmonic Balancer" was not mentioned here in a post from geekinavette :L

See geekinavette some of us do not forget otfl

 

[muddywaters]

Years of experience. The rubber isolator is visible, should be flush. The clearance is diminished between the balancer/crank and the timing chain cover.

 

[speedmaster4]

have seen a number of em that ''slipped'' around the hub, NEVER saw one slide back like that, and i've pulled hundreds apart...must be your car ''hooks'' hnoes

we have pressed the ring off to use only the hub on circle trackers, and they do not come off without a fight...very interesting.

 

[muddywaters]

Probably some one with an over zealous hammer installed it, I would replace with a new one.

 

[geekinavette]

How can you tell? By the widening of the ridge just above the letters something MC in the photo?

And I know the word "Harmonic Balancer" was not mentioned here in a post from geekinavette :L

See geekinavette some of us do not forget otfl

Must've been a good article!

It was not installed with a hammer...I installed it myself (new) with a proper installation tool when I built the engine roughly 4 years ago...there is nary a dent in it anywhere.

I apologize for the crudeness of the picture...it was difficult to get a straight shot to show the seperation very well...and the coolant has just made a helluva mess as you can see!

Bill

 

[Erik S. Klein]

My wife's ML430 had the same basic problem. It carved through the timing chain cover and oil pan, blew up the fan motor and melted the fan and made a mess of the belt to boot. In the end Mercedes charged us $4,500 for the pleasure of dealing with their Chrysler quality only to pay most of it back after the realized that it was a manufacturers defect.

I'm glad you caught it early. I just wish my wife had heard the grinding and seen the smoke more quickly.

 

[Toms007]

Well Bill, I guess these things happen for a reason. At least you can fix it before it did any damage. Is this a common issue with the pre-LTx engines?

I just bought WP and Opti-spark from thepartsladi as well, genuine GM and got them both for less than $460 delivered (153.50 for the WP and 288 for the Opti).

 

[geekinavette]

Tom,

Well I've heard of it happening a few times...first time it has happened to me.

Bill

 

[fatboyreyn]

i don't want to seem stupid, but what are we looking at thats wrong?

 

[geekinavette]

The outer ring of the vibration damper is sliding back and rubbing on the timing chain cover....

 

[milehigreg]

Pre-emptive Purchase?

Tom. Did the infamous water pump failure ruining the Opti happen to you or are you doing a pre-emptive swap?

 

[Toms007]

Tom. Did the infamous water pump failure ruining the Opti happen to you or are you doing a pre-emptive swap?

Greg, I still have that small oil leak from the front of the engine. I have bought the seals that replace the water pump drive seal, opti drive seal, and the crank seal (I don't know which one is leaking yet). I have consulted the maintenance records and in them I have found that neither (opti or WP) has been replaced, so with 109K (if they are original) they are both on borrowed time. Since I have to take them off to replace the seals, I may as well replace them with the new. Maybe I am little paranoid about having issues, but I'd rather do it pre-emptive.

Sorry Bill about the hijack.

 

[G Winter]

Your not paranoid. It makes cents. It is a whole lot cheaper to do it yourself now than 300 miles from home in a shop that sees the dollar signs.I am a firm believer in preventive maintenance. I may spend on what seems unnecessary, but is very rare that I get hung out to dry on the road.

Glenn

 

[Toms007]

Well Bill, are we back together yet? I got all my parts put on and back up and running.

Greg, I am pretty sure that my records were wrong. When I got the water pump off and I could see the optispark, right there on top it said 23 5 2002 printed on the top of the optispark body. So I am sure that the opti was only 5 years old....oh well, I went ahead and put the new one on as well as the new w/p, rather be safe than sorry. AND I don't want to have to do that job again anytime soon.