water pump? whirring sound
 

Hey everyone,
A quick story: my car has had hot-start and hot-hesitation problems since i bought it. After chasing the problem down to the FPR I replaced it. I took it out for a test run and the headgasket blew. I replaced the headgasket and all other gaskets that come with the set, as well as the oil cooler seals while i was in there, just to be safe. As I fired her up after 2 weeks of sitting headless, i saw water dripping from the water pump, and i heard a WHIRRING sound proportional to engine speed. I don't know if this sound was there before, i never listened for it. I figured the water pump was shot so I replaced it, along with the timing belt (just to be safe) and all the front seals except for cam (while i was in there), I just finished yesterday. Turned it on and I still hear the sound. I did a complete timing / balance shaft belt job with all rollers just 200 miles ago. I used a screwdriver as a stethoscope on the WP and i hear the sound from there.

I will try other places to see if the sound is louder anywhere else. My question is, assuming the rebuilt WP is not faulty (I hope its not) what else could cause this sound? Would the belt rubbing the rear cover make a sound like a worn bearing? Any ideas are welcome, I'll try anything before taking the WP out again. TIA!

Last time I pulled the head and put the engine back together I had a sound like the whirring of a roller. Turned out to be one of the belts rubbing a little on the plastic covers. I would check that first. Beyond the covers, pump, rollers, and idlers I don't know what it could be.

Also just to be safe, check the water level to make sure.

Check the belts for rubbing, and get the tension professionally done by a shop. These cars will sound supercharged if the belts are even slightly overtight.

Just a couple things to make sure of might be: (1) make very sure that shoulders on all rollers/wp are in proper alignment/direction, and you have full belt engagement on all these rollers/idlers. lower BS gear on the crank must position with shoulder forward, and belt is not rubbing on cover. (2) make sure you turned the tension roller ecentrics in the proper direction when you installed them.....clockwise for BS, and CCW for cam tensioner. (3) possibly, the BS belt is just a little tighter than it should be?
I have recieved a rebuilt wp in the past, with the pulley on it positioned wrong/wrong pulley for the pump, causing cam belt to ride about an 1/8th of inch off the inside edge of pulley.

I have the same thing as far as waterpump leaking. It is a new pump, and is leaking from behind it at that super thin gasket that I used, and installed dry. I need to remove and do over, this time using a sealant on that gasket. AFAIK, some belt noise is common, but shouldn't sound real prominant for long.

Just some thoughts.....not expert advice. Good luck!

Awesome advice, thanks everyone. I'll see if the belt is rubbing the back cover, since i left the front cover off to check everything for the first start-up. I filled the coolant system with the high-point bolt open until water spilled out. Later, some water overflowed from the tank, as expected. I'll check that the tensioners are turned the right way. Come to think of it, i did notice the belt had 'migrated' back quite a bit. What could remedy this? if i move it forward, wont it just 'migrate' back again?

As far as belt tension goes, I would like very much to have it done professionally, but I can't afford it. That pretty much applies to most of the work I do on it, though there are jobs that are actually a lot of fun (TB tension isn't one of them...). I'm using a kriket tension checker, as well as the 3-piece tool kit from arnnworx (flywheel lock and 2 wrenches). Lots of patience and lots of turning the engine by hand.

make sure you bleed the coolant. after changing my coolant, i noticed a squeaky, whiny sound from the waterpump until the system was bled.

Maybe I didn't bleed the coolant properly... I just opened the high-point bolt (on the metal spout-like neck at the top front of the engine) and filled the reservoir until water spilled out from the high-point. I did all this with the engine off and cold. Did I miss something?

Id say find the money to get the tension check professionally. If theyre worth their salt, theyll look over the work youve done. And The $100 or whatever it is in the US is a great price for peace of mind with the belts.

~$100 or $3000?

Is it really only $100? And they'll fix the tension if I got it wrong? In that case I'll do it... I thought it would cost more like $500-$1000.

nothing came out of my bleed valve until i ran the engine. i would try bleeding it again while running to see if that fixes anything. also the balance shaft belt tension is much looser than you would think.

while we're on the subject of belts, I had observed that my mechanic always sets the belts on a tension of 4 on the Porsche belt tensioning gauge. I had brought the car back to him after a while to get a retension and the belts appeared to have been fine and no retension was needed. There's something I don't understand here. Why do our cars require the retension? when the tension had been checked on mine it had been around in the area of 3 1/2 or just a little over. The tension wasn't too tight but I had the whining sound. My last 84 had the same thing and the tension never really got all screwy and loose. call it luck I guess, but I hope I didn't jinx myself just saying this :( :eek: I can't afford to spend another $2500 for another engine and having it dropped in. yeesh...

Tension adjustment for me is $120-140CDN IIRC, so its prolly a little less than that for you unless you take it to a dealership :p

The retension is because its an all aluminum engine, so as it heats up the block AND the head expand a bit, stretching the belt. Then contracts when it cools down, then expands... So on and so on. The belts get continually worked, and finally get looser to the point they NEED retension.

IMHO as long as you follow the suggested belt replacement and retension intervals, things are fine.