Water Pump on a 1.3 Felicia Pickup

[guida01]

Hello to all,

 

Wonder if anyone can give me some advice about a water pump change on my 1.3 pickup?

 

I have read various bits about it, but wonder if I can just undo and remove the water pump mount that is fixed to the car and remove the water pump that way?

 

I asume that I would not have to bother with the jacking up or down of the engine if I removed the side engine mount.

 

Many thanks Paolo.

 

[raedalbandak]

Hi,

Changing the water pump is not that hard. You just need to have the right tools especially a good jack and a set of sockets and ratchet, patience.

Earlier, a good friend from this forum needed to change the water pump so I helped him with the following steps which worked well with him and another member too.

My language structure is not so good because i am not an english speaker.

1. disconnect the car battery since you will need to remove the alternator and its wires.
2. Since the radiator is new, you need only to flush the engine block from scales and sludge that accumulated over the years. You can do this using a garden hose. You need to remove the hoses going into the radiator from the thermostat housing and the expansion tank and the lower one that goes to the metal pipe underneath the oil sump and into the pump.
3. Insert the garden hose into the lower hose and turn on the water, the water will come out from the thermostat housing big hose. Stop when the water comes out clear.
4. Drain the engine block from the remaining water by undoing the bolt in the pipe beneath the oil sump.
5. Remove the alternator and belt. I prefered to renew the belt because of the spilled water.
5. Jack up the car.
6. Using a trolly jack and a wood block, support the engine with the jack. You can support the engine at the point between the oil sump and the gearbox block, this is just below the flywheel housing.
7. Undo and remove the big bolt and nut going throug the center of the engine rubber mount which is integrated in the water pump body.
8. Undo and remove the short hose that goes up into the water pump.
9. For good control and to ease the job, remove the engine mount bracket that links the water pump to the car body, this can be done by undoing three bolts from beneath the car. ( I recommend this step althoug refitting it is somehow tricky ).
10.Also i recommend you undo the lower engine mount; the one that holds the gearbox and differential to the car underbody near the gear lever linkages. Undo the front bolt not the rear bolt. This will ease lifting the engine upwards.
11.Now the engine will be free to move up. Carefully jack up the engine slowly until all the nuts of the water pump are reachable. Undo them and pull out the pump.
12.Clean all the old gasket residues, apply thin layers of any heat resistant gasket maker to the new gasket supplied with the pump and to the mating surfaces of the engine head and water pump.
13.Now place the new gasket in the right orientation on the engine head and then put the water pump.
14.Tighten the four nuts diagonnaly to the right torque or equally if no torque wrench is available.
15.Lower the engine slowly and carefully until the engine rubber mount center eye is aligned with the hole in the inner wing.
16.Refit the engine mount bracket.
17.Place the big bolt through the inner wing hole and into the rubber mount eye. It sometimes need jerking of the engine slowly until it is through, tighten the nut to the specified torque.
18.Tighten the bolt and nut of the lower engine mount to the specified torque.
19.Refit all the hoses to and from the water pump, radiator, thermostat housing, and expansion tank.
20.Refit the alternator and its wires without tightening.
21.Place the new belt and push out the alternator using a wood lever until the belts' longest stretch (between the alternator and water pump pulleys) centerpoint can travel upwards or downwards by hand (without excessive force) around 1 cm (Best tension if you do not have a tension meter).
22.Refill the water system with Distilled water and engine coolant (G11 grade according to skoda). I recommed 60% water and 40% coolant.
23.Check for water leaks around the hoses ends.
24.Connect the battery and run the engine with the expansion tank cap removed until all the air pockets in the water cycle are out. make sure that the radiator fan starts after the thermostat is fully open when the water temp rises to the correct temperature and watch the water moving in the expansion tank.
25.Turn off the engine and recheck the water level again after the engine cools down.

I hope this will help you and let us know what happened and learnt lessons for the benefit of this great forum and its lovely members.