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Agreed the OEM heat shields serve a purpose, however aftermarket exhausts (at least images of aftermarket exhausts) don't come with heat shields.
I'm starting to consider an upgrade.
Any aftermarket exhaust system that can't co-exist with the stock/factory heat shields or doesn't come with its own adequate heat shields is an aftermarket exhaust system I would avoid.
While tightening the lower bolts on my new (OEM) water pump, a stream of coolant sprang from the passenger side coolant pipe that has one of the 2 drain plugs. Naturally, this was shocking since the drain plug is the lowest point in the pipe and it had already been drained several days ago when I first removed my old water pump.
After some investigation, I realized that my mistake was made when I removed the engine plate/bracket thing that connects the front of the block to the motor mounts.
When I initially set out to remove my water pump, I followed the how-to on this forum and simply raised the engine slightly, removed the 4 bolts and 2 motor mount nuts that secured the bracket, and lowered the engine again to access the water pump.
The problem is that the bracket does not just bolt to the block directly, the 2 lower bolts pass through a water jacket between the bracket and block. This water jacket is then connected to the coolant pipes (the ones with the drain plugs) via what are called water sockets (pictured below).
Assembled Water Sockets
When the water jacket is misaligned slightly, the water sockets are stressed and mine leaked.
So I bought new O-rings for the sockets and the "protective gasket" that goes in the middle/
The rubber was pretty bad and I got lots of junk in my coolant bucket so I had to filter all that crap out to re-use the coolant.
A good tip when replacing rubber gaskets and O-rings in the winter is to heat everything up in hot *** water before you put it all together.
So the lesson is that once you've removed the bracket from the motor mounts, immediately replace the 4 bolts even before you lower the engine so that you never lose alignment with the water jacket.
My car is back on the road with a new water pump, new serpentine belt, new deflection rollers, new belt tensioner, and new water sockets. No leaks and no bearing bearing growl!!!
12-29-2014, 11:52 AM
