I just put a thermostat in my 92 chevy but the gauge still shows close to hot but go down to normal pretty fast and occasionally i her a loud sound coming from the area where the belt is but i can't pinpoint it. I replaced the pump about three years ago, could that be it again so soon?
Take it to the local machanic shop
Overheating....watch the temperature gauge!! Yes...the pump could be bad too. How's the radiator fluid level?? Topped off?
Water pumps normally just leak when they go bad. Some pumps have plastic impellers that can break. The way to tell if a bearing is bad, is to take the belt off and rotate all shafts by hand. Could be AC clutch bearing for example. Or listen though a length of rubber hose to pinpoint.
Agree with motorhead. You (question asker) replaced the pump, did you see anything that could break? Only issue with GM water pumps is normally if the cooling system is abused and fluid never changed, which can lead to the impellers rotting away. If the water pump fails fails (not just a leaking seal, the normal failure mode) the engine will overheat. The waterpump is the only thing that moves coolant, if the coolant can't move, the engine will fail from overheating. Take the belt off and see what happens for yourself. Did you purge the cooling system if needed? Did you use a genuine AC Delco thermostat instead of whatever the parts store handed you (probably Stant)?
