brythonic

My wife's 1993 GS300 water pump has been on its way out of a couple of weeks, and while I was away, my wife decided to hire our local neighborhood mechanic to do the job so I wouldn't have to. Long story short, the guy should never touch anything more complicated than a 1970 F150. I came home to find the O-ring and gasket still in the box. The overflow now boils when at temperature (with no leaks that I can see) and I can't tell if the new water pump is actually circulating the water (I can squeeze the upper radiator hose and it doesn't feel as if there is much if any liquid in it). Also, after it warms up it sounds like crap. Actually, it sounds like the idle is too low or that isn't struggling to get air.

I pulled the front cover off and checked the timing. The top marks are lined up and the bottom is at 0, so that checks out. I've also since replaced the thermostat (because he didn't) and burped the system hoping that there was just air in it, but neither has made a difference. I tried talking to that local "mechanic," but he just admitted defeat and offered my money back (which I took). I'm to the point where I don't know what to do other than pull the entire water pump back out and put the gasket and 0-rings where they are supposed to go. I don't know if it's already caused damage, isn't that important, or even if that isn't the reason it is running poorly and the overflow is boiling.

This is now beyond me and I hope that one of you can give me a hint before I have this thing towed 20 miles to a dealership and hand them my check book.

Thank you.

oldspice

Sounds like bhg....

brythonic

Yes, it was totally Better Homes & Gardens.

Turns out that he couldn't remove the crankshaft bolt with either his breaker bar or impact gun and simply broke the crankshaft plastic cover off while trying to bend it out of the way to get to all of the water pump bolts. So because he removed only the pump and not the housing, he never got to where the gasket or o-ring were.

After reading a bunch of useless information on the internet about boiling overflow tanks, I hit upon a useful piece of information. I opened up the lower radiator hose below the thermostat and the upper radiator hose and ran the sprayed by garden hose through the system for a couple seconds. Put it all back together and it now seems to be working well. I honestly can't explain why this works, but somewhere in the back of my head I think it might have something to do with forcing water into somewhere the pump can't or maybe getting rid of air. I honestly have no idea.

I've driven it about 50 miles now on both the highway and in traffic and everything seems back to normal. I hope this is helpful to someone, someday, for some reason.

chek128

bhg=Blown Head Gasket , not better homes and garden lol

Also I know exactly what your talking about with the back housing of the water pump, really you can buy just the pump or the pump and housing. When I converted my Aristo to a USDM TT supra water pump, I had to replace the entire pump and housing and its no easy job, but mine would boil also afterwards untill i properly burped the system, Doing what you did seems like you forced the air pockets out when you did that with the hose. Either way, Glad its all working for you.