Water pump leak or something else?

Hey guys, just thought I'd run this by you before I start pulling things off.  I have a 94 with about 81k miles that recently developed a small coolant drip.  I got under there to check, and the drip APPEARS to be coming from the bottom of the optispark, not the actual water pump, so I'm thinking I have maybe a seal or gasket leaking and running down the distributor? It's hard to tell since they're right up against each other, but at any rate, the drip is coming off of the opti.

So my plan is to get a rebuilt gm water pump or at least a decent quality repro, plus new seals and so on.  Does that sound right?  I thought I read on here to leave the opti alone if the car is running fine otherwise.  Any help or advice is appreciated, since this is my first non-cosmetic issue with the car.  Thanks again...

weep hole in bottom of the waterpump drips onto the opti,...

you are right,.

carry on.

Is it dripping alot of just dribbling?

If it's the weep hole, replace the pump. Doesn't matter if it drips or dribbles
Pete

Thanks for the input. I got the pump off and purchased a rebuilt unit, but now have another question. The new pump is very hard to turn by hand, whereas the old pump spins freely. Is this just how a new pump feels, or could it be defective right out of the box? Are the seals just super tight when new?

Also, the area around the front of the engine is a bit gunked up with grease and dirt from the past 20 years I guess -- how would you go about cleaning that off without damaging any electrical components. I know how to clean up old carb engines, but not used to doing so on "modern" cars. Thanks much.

I believe the new pump I put on was tight as well. I typically use some Degreaser and a stiff bristle brush to get the crud off. A good pressure washer doesn't hurt

Thanks Novaguy, quick reply! I used to have a 66 Mustang where all I had to do was cover the carb and distributor and I could go to town hosing down, scrubbing and degreasing my 289. I am just more hesitant with this car due to all the wiring going every which way. I suppose I can just degrease and use a small brush like you said. I wasn't sure how much waterspray these engines can take, that's all...

That's correct, the new pump feels very stiff where the old one spinns freely. (IMO that's why it's busted). The crud just needs elbow grease and a screw driver fot the hard to reach places.
Good luck,
Pete

Alright, I got my new water pump installed, no leaks or anything, but then I checked the next day to see if there were any overnight drips, and there was an oil leak which was not there before.

I traced it to the source and it looks like the water pump seal on the engine has gone bad, which is very annoying because now I have to pull the pump off again to get to it. All I know is I did not touch it so I don't see why it would just start leaking.

Anyway, so I found videos showing to replace that seal you have to pull the pump again, plus the optispark and harmonic balancer, just because the optispark is maybe 1/4 inch in the way of the seal which prevents easy replacement access -- great design there!

I rented myself a puller, but it seems first you have to remove the center bolt, and the 3 bolts on the balancer. That is where I am stuck. None of these bolts are coming out because the engine just turns with me when I turn the wrench. So what is the trick here? I saw one video where a guy wedged his breaker bar behind some engine brace, but that was not an LT1. I can't find a video on how to remove those bolts on an LT1. Either the video skips it, or their bolts just come out easy.

Any ideas? I know you guys have run into this before, but I didn't see anything about this specifically, using the search function. Thanks.

If you don't have an impact gun, then put the belt back on while you crack the bolts loose. Or use a strap wrench on the pulley. Or pull a spark plug and stuff a half-mile of 1/4" nylon cord in there, MAKING SURE THAT CYLINDER IS ON THE POWER STROKE FIRST (so valves will remain closed as piston rises against the cord). (Ok, maybe not a full 1/2 mile...)

hi stud

Nice looking wagon, cant see a dent on it!

Thank you all for bearing with me on this.  So I finally got the bolts off the harmonic balancer and have the felpro gasket set for the timing cover which apparently has everything you need to do this job.  My question now is, the set has two tiny O-rings, but I'm not sure if they go onto the optispark, which has two indents -- OR does the opti just take one, and so the other o-ring is for the water pump driveshaft, which actually has an indent for a ring on each side of the little drive coupling thing. Or I guess a third option is I need more O-rings?  I'm just confused because I thought the felpro gasket set covers everything needed, but it just looks like there are spots for more O-rings.  thanks for any help here...

Studebricker wrote:

Thank you all for bearing with me on this.  My question now is, the set has two tiny O-rings, but I'm not sure if they go onto the optispark, which has two indents -- OR does the opti just take one, and so the other o-ring is for the water pump driveshaft, which actually has an indent for a ring on each side of the l...

The opti has two, the water pump gets one, then the spline the water pump fits onto has one also.

Thanks again, guys. I got it all buttoned up. One last thing... when I bleed the air out of the coolant, is the valve on top of the thermostat housing the one to open, or is there another somewhere else. I only ask because when I open the valve, there doesn't seem to be any air bleeding out, just coolant, so I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. Didn't want to have any air in the system. Thanks much.

There's just the one @ the thermostat and you probably won't get much air out of it. The system is effectively self-bleeding. The pressurized reservoir is the highest point in the system and the system is piped (from the heater core return and the rear of the head) such that any air/steam makes it's way into the reservoir. Just make sure you keep the reservoir topped up above the height of the return line to the radiator and you'll have no problems from air pockets.

If its peeing coolant,. it's bled

Thanks guys, I really appreciate all your help. This was my first maintenance, outside of changing the oil, on this car. Between this forum and some youtube videos though, I was able to get the leaks fixed, as well as eliminating the home plate/first base/air pump along the way. I will post some pics of my "new" engine bay on my ongoing car progress thread.

Pics?