WTB Water Pump

[Ending Credits]

Apparently the water pum on my beat has gone so I'll need a replacement.

Does anyone know how complicated the pump replacement is?

[Mike_beat]

Quite a time consuming job, worth doing the cambelt at the same time if it hasn't been done

[Ending Credits]

I might get the engine out for new piston rings, presumably it's a bit easier then. Still, it's going to be a fortune, might have to take her off the roads for a year or so till I can afford to do all that.

[Steve_M]

Water pump it self is £127.63 inc VAT

I would estimate in parts to replace waterpump and piston rings (Engine strip) you will be looking around £570 in parts, to include replacing bigend / main bearing shells as well while apart add another £350.

Those prices are getting parts from a UK honda dealer, some parts are in stock in europe, but some would come from Japan along with the associated wait of either weeks or months.

If you need any advise / list of parts and part numbers let me know.

You may be able to get those parts via one of the Japan importers cheaper (Jesse Streeter etc.) but I can give you no advise on using these as I have no personal experience.

[Steve_M]

Does anyone know how complicated the pump replacement is?

Waterpump replacement is basically cambelt replacement plus draining cooling system and 4 additional bolts to take the waterpump off.

Book time for waterpump replacement is 4 hours (But then that doesnt include all the horrors of seized/corroded fixings etc.. of an old car)

[Ending Credits]

Water pump it self is £127.63 inc VAT

I would estimate in parts to replace waterpump and piston rings (Engine strip) you will be looking around £570 in parts, to include replacing bigend / main bearing shells as well while apart add another £350.

Those prices are getting parts from a UK honda dealer, some parts are in stock in europe, but some would come from Japan along with the associated wait of either weeks or months.

If you need any advise / list of parts and part numbers let me know.

You may be able to get those parts via one of the Japan importers cheaper (Jesse Streeter etc.) but I can give you no advise on using these as I have no personal experience.

A list of parts and part numbers would be great. Presumably oversized pistons are the best bet to solving my oil problem?

I've managed to source a water-pump for £50, so that's fine.

The prices I've been quoted by the local dealer are £408 for the WP replacement and £1060 for oversized pistons. Not unreasonable, but I'm sure there are cheaper options. Waiting is fine for me as I'm probably going to have to take the car off the road now anyway.

[Steve_M]

Presumably oversized pistons are the best bet to solving my oil problem?

Oversized piston are now discontinued.

Replacement of standard sized piston rings, bores honed and valve stem seals would effectively cure your oil burniing

[Moriniman]

That's not a bad price for a waterpump.

It's usually possible to rebuild waterpumps, they tend to use standard bearings and seals (graphite or graphite/ceramic) and can be very worthwhile with expensive or obscure pumps. On the old Lotus twincam the waterpump was built into the timing cover. They used all the standard Ford waterpump parts and you had to rebuild the pump to replace it.

If you've got all the piston dimensions you can get a good specialist supplier to look for a suitable alternative. Non standard oversizes (if building a big bore engine) can often be found this way. Custom pistons can be suprisingly cheap too if they can be produced from a blank already in the catalogue. In the past I've taken worn plus +40 thou pistons, machined them down to +20 and recut the ring grooves (sourcing thicker rings) to fix an engine for which pistons were not readily available. Crank shells can also be found the same way. A friend of mine has Bedford CF shells in the 2.5 liter quad cam V8 in an Alfa Romeo Montreal and I made a jig up many years ago to convert Fiat V6 bearings to fit the Ferrari V6.

[steveinjapan]

Necessity, or in this case, rarity, is the mother of invention.

Once upon a time I had a water pump fail spectacularly on an old 6-cylinder Jeep wagon up in the Hindu Kush of Pakistan, very luckily only a few miles from a major lorry stop. (If I had said "caravansarai" would you know I wasn't referring to holiday campers?) A hole-in-the-wall shop had the identical diameter shaft and seal from a Landrover. A machine shop the breadth of a carton of fags cut it to the right length, while another one made a sand mold using the broken impeller and cast a new one from scrap brass. Once this had been machined and the whole thing reassembled with a custom-cut gasket I was back on the road. Amazingly it all happened in about the time it took to devour a good curry lunch - those truckers didn't appreciate delays.

[Ending Credits]

For fixing the whole oil problem, what would people suggest is the best way of going about it? I'm half tempted to go down the complete engine rebuild/overhaul route but the car has only done 50k km (or so it says) and, apart from the two problems mentioned, has been mechanically faultless (starts instantly every time). The other option is a replacement engine (probably cheapest) but that might not cure the oil problem.

Parts from Japan suits me as I wasn't planning on doing anything for a little while anyway, although I'd like to get them ordered now in case I decide I want to fix it for this summer.

[Ending Credits]

Quick bump just to find out what other people have done about their oil problems.

[LawrenceHarding]

Quick bump just to find out what other people have done about their oil problems.

How bad is it, one of ours uses a fair bit, but doesn't leave a smokescreen. Still it has done around 190,000km.

[mikei]

Can I ask where you get a water pump for £50 as am planning a belt change soon thanks