hi all,
i sprung a coolant leak driving back yesterday during the sweltering day we were having in MD. the temp meter was in the red for 10-15 minutes of regular street driving, i thought it was just because it was hot out and was under the impression that the temp meter wasn't that accurate. anyway, i find it leaking coolant from the gasket on top of the water pump and relieved the pressure by opening the coolant reservoir. also found that one of the fan belts had mysteriously stripped away and snapped. anyway, i ordered a new water pump with gaskets, thermostat and v-belt...is there anything else i should check on the engine during an overheating event like this?
thx!

 

was the fan and therefore water pump not turning at all? if so, its quite possible your engine overheated to the point of doing some serious damage, but in this case you would probably have experienced extreme pinging and a loss of power. when this has happened, its quite likely you fried your head gasket, and maybe cracked your head. good new is, the red block lower end is pretty robust and likely survived the abuse.

 

I'm not sure if the fan stopped turning... There was still a belt on there so I assume it was turning... Does it need both belts to turn?

 

one should be fine.

when you get it back together, I'd suggest doing a compression test on all 4 cylinders, that will likely tell you if there are any head gasket or head crack kind of problems.

 

is there a tool i can do a compression test by myself? or do i need to take it to the shop?

 

You need a fuel pressure gauge, and depending on the year, you may need a specific adapter T connector that goes between the input fuel line and the fuel injector rail.

 

cool thanks...one last question...i'm just about to do it...is there a way to remove the lower radiator hose without making a mess of antifreeze on the ground? i don't think there is a pan flat and wide enough to capture all the spillage.

 

I think Pierce had an extra beer when posting that one. What you need is a compression tester that screws into the spark plug hole. You can get one at any auto parts store. I know Autozone will generally lend out tools but you will have to give them a credit card number.

When testing the cylinder compression, you remove all of the spark plugs, screw in the compression gauge and crank the engine for a few seconds. The tester should hold the pressure until you release it with a button near the gauge.

 

who me? extra beer? errrrr, what he said. I was confusing compression with fuel pressure, duh!

 

I was wondering if anyone had any idea what could've happened... I noticed my timing belt housing was damaged like a spinning thing wore into it, same diameter and area as the pulley on the water pump, and my outside belt had snapped unusually (pics attached). The water pump belt that came off was the further one from the engine... The other belts seemed fine...

 

what happened? the belt frayed, did the damage, then broke. probably over a period of several 1000 miles. regular visual inspections are a good thing.

 

I replaced the belt 2 years ago... Also how come it didn't over heat till now... Could this have been a sudden event?

 

depends on why it overheated, didn't you mention a coolant leak?

quality belts (I use Continentals) last a long time... IF they are properly tensioned, and everything is in line. I've had to replace the rubber bushings on my AC compressor and Alternator, and the harmonic damper (the main crankshaft pulley, which includes a rubber damper), to keep everything in a straight line as all that stuff was worn out on my 1992 with 220000 miles.

 

oh mine has 211k miles...maybe i should replace those parts too...how can you tell if it's inline?

 

How were the bearings in the old water pump? Were they loose? A loose bearing can cause the pulley to be mis-aligned.

Years ago when we first purchased my daughter's 240, I noticed similar wear on the timing belt cover. I checked out the water pump and the bearings were tight and there were no signs of leaking. I used a straight edge on the crank pulley to check the alignment with the water pump/fan pulley. I found them to be mis-aligned by approx 1/16 of an inch. This offset was also the reason the pulley was rubbing the timing belt cover. I fashioned a couple of shims to offset the pulley and it seemed to fix the problem.

If the pulleys are mis-aligned, I would expect the belts to wear faster.

 

finally got around to getting off water pump...no the bearings don't seem loose, the part that attaches to the pulley seems OK. the way the gasket on the top of the water pump is damaged near the circle of damage of the timing belt cover makes me suspect the gasket has been damaged by one of the belts and then caused a leak...

just some questions came up if anyone could answer tho and they don't seem to be addressed in the manual.
so the red metal pipe that feeds into the water pump seems to have a white wrap around it to stop it leaking (pic attached), what should i use to replace it if at all? i don't think PTFE tape would work.

also the thermostat housing has melted gasket in it (pic attached), any tips on how to get rid of it? i'm tempted to just get a new housing...

lastly, it just started raining and is expected to rain tomorrow, is it ok to leave the cooling system exposed to air for a day or so? or will something rust in there pretty quick?
thx all

 

You need a water pump gasket kit, it has all the seals. Many sources have it. May be a whole new water pump?
The t.stat gasket looks bad, somebody put the wrong sealant, may be the wrong t.stat...
Keeping the system open is no problem.
You also have/had? an oil leak probably from the cam seal by the looks of the oil around the water pump.

 

Great, I couldn't find torque spec for the thermostat housing nuts and snapped the stud (was going for 44ft-lb) ... Which way do I twist to get the stud out, I sprayed pb blaster on it and will let it go overnight, the other one is a little stretched out too... Should I just remove it?

@

 

You don't need to torque things like that! Just get it reasonably tight, develop a feel for it. I know it sounds a little spacey but torquing small nuts just ends badly. The stud should unscrew to the left... Leave the other one alone if it's serviceable.

 

amateurs consistently overtorque small nuts, and undertorque big ones.