I have had this water pump changed 2 times in 5 years is this normal for this car? It has a v6 motor.
i wouldn't think that was normal, but what do i know? point being.....yea water pumps, in my experience, are pretty difficultly to change out....no average Joe could do it.
no it is not normal for most cars but maybe yours it is..
1. Remove any radiator shroud, or any cowl obstructing the fan, radiator, and water pump. 2. using a pair of large pliers, take off the clamp on the lower radiator hose at the water pump and drain the coolant into a container. Make sure the motor is COLD, room temp, when you do this. 3. Remove the other hose. 4. Remove the cooling fan using an air hammer or a large adjustable wrench. This part is tricky, unless your fan is bolted on with 10 mm bolts, then you lucked out. 5. For step 4, leave the belt on, it will make it easier to remove the fan. 6. If you have a V-8 LT-1, then you have 4 13 mm bolts. Be careful not to damage your distributor which sits under the pump (nice design GM) 7. Using a razor blade, remove any gasket on the inlet and outlet on the block. 8. Apply a thin layer of gasket sealer on the gaskets for the new pump. 9. Install the pump, and its bolts. Use locktite if you have some on the bolts, medium strength. Tighten the bolts to about 90 in/lbs 10. install the pully, and fan. (again, tricky) 11. Install the belt. 12. put lower radiator hose back on (leave off upper) 13. pour 1/2 a bottle of Dex-cool coolant in the radiator 14. fill bottle up with 1/2 water, 1/2 coolant, and pour it into the reservoir. 15. If necessary, get new bottle of coolant, and pour it into the UPPER RADIATOR HOSE, this will help bleed air out of the system. 16. keep filling upper hose, and radiator until it stops bubbling down and basically overflows. 17. install upper hose. 18. make sure the radiator is full and system has no air pockets. Check to see if the upper radiator hose inlet has a bleeder valve. If it does, use a pair of pliers and open it, and watch coolant in radiator drop, then fillit up again. The V-6 has one, not sure about V-8. 19. put radiator cap on, and resevoir cap. 20. run motor, check for any leaks. 21. drive, if vehicle is overheating and there are no leaks, there is still air in the system. Wait till it cools down and bleed air again.
