overheating and big loss of coolant

[milehighmark]

First of all thanks for having this great forum,anyway hope I dont make this too long, I have a 98 GT in the past it was slowly losing coolant and the wife could here a gurgeling sound from the heater core,and the low coolant light was coming on,anyway I topped off the coolant drove around for couple miles to circulate the system,a couple days passed and the coolant was way down again 1/2 gal maybe.. I should mention I have not noticed any coolant on the garage floor but I could smell it when she would come home an park..anyway topped the coolant off again yesterday when she gets home the engine is steaming I popped the hood and can hear a hissing down near the water pump and can see coolant pooled on a lower cross member,checked the oil it's ok and the engine wasn't knocking or missing,It appears the upper elbow is ok from what i can see, is the waterpump toast if so how tough is it to replace..

[blueguy]

They are just kinda tedious...where in Missouri are you at? Might try replacing the 2 plastic coolant elbows and Lower Intake Manifold gaskets (Aluminum ones from a GM Dealership) while your at it. My Mom had a '03 LeSabre that did that...smelled like coolant bad but only trickled out from the back of the cracked Upper Intake Manifold (Black Plastic Plenum) and onto the rear exhaust manifold. Put a new one on along with LIM gaskets and fixed it right up. Lemme know man, maybe I could come and help ya out.

[milehighmark]

hey thanks for the reply, I live in rogersville,mo. ok I replaced the water pump and 1 of the plastic elbows that is on the end of that part that holds the belt tensioner cant find the other elbow.. the only other port on that part has a straight tube about 2" long with an o-ring on the end it appears to be pressed in should I be looking somewhere else?,also I did something wrong on reassembly cause it's leaking somewhere between the W/P pulley and the P/S pulley below the Altenator either a bolt is not tight enough or too tight?? unless that's where that elbow is I could'nt see before.any reply will be apprec,thanks

[milehighmark]

Also does anyone know the torgue setting on the water pump and is there a certain pattern for reassembly..

[Chernobyl]

Also does anyone know the torgue setting on the water pump and is there a certain pattern for reassembly..

Mounting bolts is 132 in-lbs for the short bolts, than another 80 degrees, long bolts is 15 ft-lbs, then another 40 degrees.

Pulley bolts is 115 in-lbs.

According to my Haynes manual.

[blueguy]

Yeah you have to be basically perfect on the WP torque specs from what I hear or it hates you

[milehighmark]

ok thanks for all the advice,after taking it apart for the second time when I pulled the belt tensioner off I noticed the o-ring on the straight sleeve that goes into W/P had been cut in two on the bottom side so I never saw it when I put it back together the first time.. anyway its all back now no leaks YAHOO!!! thanks again for the help

[blueguy]

Cool beans dude...now modify it