Waterpump Time

[Intrepidation]

I noticed a week or so ago that I can smell a bit of antifreeze when the air is on in the Grand Marquis. My first thought is heater core, which would really suck. I also noticed the last time I drove it that the belt was squeaking a bit. Today I took it to the store and it was squeaking a lot, so when I got home I popped the hood to check it out. Turns out coolant is leaking from the waterpump onto the belt and causing it to squeak. So that means it's time to do the waterpump. My question is would a waterpump on its way out cause me to smell it inside when the air is on? Maybe because fumes from the engine bay are getting pulled inside via the intake.

[ocnblu]

Yeah.

[loki]

+1 for ocn's answer.

really depends where your "vent" pulls the air from.

[A Horse With No Name]

The GMQ has the 4.6, right? How hard is it to do a water pump change on those?

[Intrepidation]

Should be pretty easy. It's located right in the middle of the bank, and no hoses run to it. So as long as the drain doesn't give me problems it should go smoothly (I bet it will though).

[Sixty8panther]

Ford heater cores suck!

They fail often & are less accessible than most.

[balthazar]

I sold my wife's '87 Mustang when the heater core went- dealer quoted $600 back in the early '90s for the change.

I remember driving down to hang out at the 24-hr Mobil Mart with friends and changing the heater core on my '64 Catalina in 20 minutes.

[daves87rs]

Yep.

[Intrepidation]

This was actually a pretty easy job (all cars should have their waterpumps so easily accessible). It took more time to get it off than on, the fan shroud was a pain because there was no way to get it off without taking the fan assembly off (which is bolted to the waterpump), which is harder to do thanks to the shroud being in the way. That and I didn't have a wrench big enough to get around the hex shaped part of the fan shaft, and the clutch removal kit the parts tore had was too big. Ended up using a pipe wrench...did the job. With the fan and the shroud out of the way, there's tons of room to work.

The the pump's pulley was rusted to the pump, so that to some gentle prying with a big screwdriver to get it off. The waterpump itself was easy to unbolt (only 4 easy accessible bolts), however it had fused itself to the engine and required about 10 minutes worth of hammering with a mallet to break the seal and get it off. That took a good 3 or 4 hours to do.

One it was off and cleaned up, everything went back on easily, took about an hour I'd say to get it all back together, maybe less.

Runs so much quieter now without the noise coming from the worn bearings of the old pump or the squeal of the old belt. Automatic tensioners FTMFW! Also the air that comes into the interior smells like..air...what a crazy concept.

On a related note, it's so nice to have a level driveway and a garage I can actually use to be able to do work on.

[ocnblu]

Whoa, shiny. Did you put new anti-freeze in?

[Intrepidation]

It's the shiniest thing in the engine bay now.

Yeah, there wasn't much left of the old antifreeze and what there was looked old, so I flushed the system and then put new antifreeze in.

[ocnblu]

cool