water trouble

[qnvic]

i had water squirtin out like mad and took teh hoses off to see if it was jus the hose that was bad and discovered this: (pictured below)

so my question is this, is this my water pump that i need to replace? soz for being a noob.

[P72Ford]

Indeed. You have to take off the accesories to get it off, and it is a bit of a pain. Be careful with the bolts/ studs that hold the water pump on; they can be stubborn and break/ damage the front cover. We had a hard time doing my '88 (broke some bolts), but it was simple on my '90, no stubborn bolts. That looks pretty rusty inside; you should drain the entire cooling system (block too), and flush it as best you can (radiator too). Change the hoses, and you may also wish to change the t stat, even if it seems ok.

[mrltd]

Yes, water pump it is!


Gonna need to flush that system really well. As Nate said, the bolts will probably break off with how bad that system is. Obviously running straight water instead of coolant.

[85crownHPP]

add a bottle or two of rust preventer / pump lube in the final mix too!!!

of course be prepared for the possibility of having new holes open up after the flush... often the goo is plugging other leaks...
If you dont flush it, you run the risk of clogging things and/or loosing freeze plugs eventually...

[Pirate]

I'm thinking that you will probably have a heater core going next, there is some extreme neglect going on with that cooling system. You need to run a coolant flush along with the water pump replacement, but I hesitate to suggest one because of the damage that could be done to the rest of the system due to the prolonged lack of anti-freeze.

[qnvic]

thanks for the info. when i got this car i added coolant in the radiator to fill it. thats what made all the red stuff appear, it wasnt like that till i used the coolant. it wasnt leaking when the engine wasnt running either. over the last few weeks i was adding about a gallon of water every few days jus to keep it filled. i bought it from an 89 yr old lady who bought it new, so im sure she didnt keep up on certain things too well.

[85crownHPP]

What kind of coolant did you put in there?? they say mixing the green and red will make that clay mud crap...

[qnvic]

took me atleast 3 hours. no more nasty red gunk either. jus needed a good flushing. what a pain in the ass, had to remove a hell of a lot of shit to get to the pump. had some trouble loosening the tensioner after i gave up on tryin to get the belt on without loosening it, but finally got it all back together. took it for a drive and its running like achamp again. thanks for the info guys.