I'll be shortly installing a new waterpump on the LS, seeing as how it seems it took a dump on me and is peeing out some coolant after I shut the car off once warm. The timing belt looks excellent so I'll just be reusing it. Now, how much time am I looking at here, install-wise? I've never done it before so I have no clue. I'll be going by a Haynes manual, but I thought I'd ask some folks here who have some real-world experience with this. I'm assuming it's not terribly hard to do. Let me know what ya can.

 

You would still have to loosen the timing belt tensioner to get the belt around the new h2o pump.

 

You might a well put a new timing belt on, you are right there when you change the pump out. I know the timing belt is pretty cheap, the labor is what costs a lot. You will need the tool to hold the crank pulley to take the 19mm bolt off to actually pull the pulley to get the timing belt off.

Taking your time and assuming that you have never doen this before i would say plan to spend the better part of the day working on it. I cant give you an exat hour count as i have been doing mine for about a month now. But then again i am not in any rush to get my car running right now.

 

Well, I will have another set of hands helping me, and I may even get a new belt. I've just basically had the car for a while now and haven't driven it yet and I need to get it on the road asap since I pretty much have my other car sold. I just work in an area with a lot of stray animals come around and people walk their animals next door in a little park and I'm not about to be responsible for the death of some cats or dogs.

 

use an airgun if possible, it saves ungodly amounts of time. support the motor from the tranny/oil pan with a jack and take off the drivers side mount to get more room to work. you can drain the coolant from the drain plug on the front of the block right by the vin #(i think its a 19mm), that way when u take the wp out it wont **** coolant all over your face. dont overtorque the wp bolts, there are 5 of them and they only get like 8- 12 ft/lbs(i forgot), so basically just remotely hand tight with a wratchet.

 

I just work in an area with a lot of stray animals come around and people walk their animals next door in a little park and I'm not about to be responsible for the death of some cats or dogs.

WHAT?

Well... I just did a water pump and timing belt on a 95 LS motor; however, the motor is absent form the car. I didn't have too much trouble, just gettin that crank bolt was a bit#$ with the assembly on a pallet. As usefull tool I used is a cam lock. It is a small wedge that you place between the cam gears inorder to stop any movement in the cam gears. It is probably mentioned in your haynes or chiltons... Be sure to torque the Waterpump bolts to spec... dont guess, just do it right the first time. (I once ran into serious ploblems guessing on a cavalier) Be sure to torque the pulley tentioner accordingly as well.

Good luck

 

thanks for the comments....definitely not gonna get my hands on an airgun, but I can handle spending the better part of a day on this. I'll definitely remember the drain trick to avoid the shot of coolant to the face....and I'm assuming the manual will have exact torque specs for those bolts. If not, I'll post again and ask.

 

First time? Allocate a full day. If you do the timing belt, and NOTHING goes wrong (something will), it will take a first time beginner a day.

If you break 3 1/2" craftsman extensions, lose the waterpump gasket, and set the delicate timing wrong, expect another 2 days haha. That was my first experience. Worst job evar!

 

well, since I know nothing goes perfectly smooth.....is there a good write-up on the install anywhere that I can take a look at? I definitely need to get it right the first time, which will be one day and probably a Sunday afternoon if it carries over.

 

dont fret! Its not difficult at all, just intimidating. Just follow that manual and use common sense. Just avoid any movement of the cams. Mark if necesary. Be sure to put everything back as it was prior. It isn't that hard, just time consuming

 

make sure to set everything to tdc!! that way if it accidentally moves, it can all go back together in alignment no problems. i just did tb and water pump on my friends girl's ls, pm me if you need any more advice or a good walk-through.

 

thanks...I may take ya up on that.

 

Ya dont forget to set it to TDC, that way the cam arrows will point up, so if they do move you can set them back easy.

 

Take out the spark plugs so the crank is easier to rotate.

Take off the valve cover & make sure you understand the timing marks BEFORE you take off the belt. The arrows point sorta upwards, but the REAL timing marks are little dimples out at the teeth. There's 2 on each sprocket & they line up horizontally with the top of the upper timing cover. The Helm book has good pictures of this, but I don't know about Haynes.

I think a lot of screwups happen because a 1st-timer takes off the belt first, THEN he tries to figure out how the timing marks are supposed to line up.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JMigs &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">... The timing belt looks excellent so I'll just be reusing it...</TD></TR></TABLE>It's gonna look excellent until about a week before it breaks. Considering how much work it is to take it off, get a new belt. (Unless you really, honestly know how old the belt is.)