1987 Celebrity Water Pump Tips

[Greywolf]

(My bad - I didn't see this forum before posting this in general tech. To save YOUR time I just copied and pasted it over - it deals with the 2.8 liter V6 EFI engine) This one was in a Celebrity, and there are a few versions (some have a polygon shape) - but this pumpwas basically round looking viewed from the front. A circle of five or six small bolts with 8mm hex heads surround it to hold it in place. Access is a piece of cake - three 10mm fasteners (two nuts and a long bolt) hold a plastic cover and a vacuum line in place, the pulley is another four bolts (10mm) and a square shank screw driver or flat metal bar can be used in between the bolt heads to prevent the pulley from turning while the bolts are being removed. THE ONLY REASON I am dropping this tech note here is this: While it looks as if the pump has equally spaced bolt holes around it, they are very slightly eccentric. The bolt holes only line up with the mating surface (and the gasket) if they are in one position. Don't apply sealer to anything until you have matched up the bolt holes and (if needed) suitably marked them with a felt pen. You should be able to turn all of the bolts into the holes at least four or five full turns by hand (or with a socket and extension, without a wrench) I found this out after trying several positions, whilst in the meantime the gasket sealer got messed up and another gasket ended up being needed... DO NOT use high temperature silicone on this gasket - it can squish out of position. The gasket surface is only about 3/16ths of an inch wide, and this can cause a leak. Plain old blue silicon can be used - but don't use very much. My recommendation is either red or copper gasket sealer spray . Apply it lightly, and allow a minute or so for it to get tacky. The original gasket doesn't have silicone sealer on it, so go figure. The replacement pump had an arrow (or triangle) embossed in the edge of the housing on the side of the pump that needs to be on top. The gasket has a tab that sticks out which lines up with this arrow mark. On this one, I left the pulley and belts off overnight and after the sealer had an hour to cure - filled the radiator (all hoses installed) to make sure there were no leaks without pressure, and to let the sealer set up to full strength. Once is enough, I was not going to re-do this thing ever again! Be extra careful when cleaning the old gasket material off, because the housing it goes into is aluminum and the mating surfaces are very easy to scar. Scrape only in line with the gasket - not in and out. Gasket remover spray is an excellent choice for this little nightmare, because it leaves no scratches. And for cruds sakes don't overtorque those itty bitty fine thread fasteners. If one of them gets cross-threaded, I don't think there is enough room for a helicoil - so the housing is done with and would need replacing. FWIW, and I hope this saves someone else a bunch of hassle. ~Greywolf

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