1991 F150 5.8

Well the water pump finally went bad on the old girl- got antifreeze leaking out of the weep hole- I think that's what it's called.

Anyway, I don't want to go to all the work of replacing it, just to have the gaskets start leaking, so is it worth it/advisable to goop the gaskets or just leave them dry?

Thanks- and yes, I will damn careful removing the bolts- gonna soak 'em in PB while I go get parts and a new cylinder for my torch.

 

I would goop with Permatex non-hardening goop
also, I like tieing the gasket in place at a half dozen holes, then cut pull them out with a pair of needle nose, before inserting the bolt

 

Sounds good. Thanks for the tip. In the past- not necessarily w/ water pump gaskets- what I've done is run a bead of goop on one side, then used the bolts themselves as a way to "press" the gasket in place. Then I'd give the goop time to set up, run a bead on the other side, and install.

 

Personally, I'd rather just use a bead of RTV..And smoothe it down, THEN Install....

So I wouldn't have a little bit et into the waterpump and clog it up....


Just a layer of it really...no bead to squash/flatten out...

 

Yea, you never want to goop on goop, just a thin layer each side

 

thin layer on each side is how i always do it never had a leak yet.

 

X2 on the RTV, good stuff

 

I'll play the Devil's Advocate here. I despise RTV/silicone.

Make sure both surfaces are clean, and coat the new paper gaskets with Cherry Chap-Stik on both sides. Yes, really. Helps hold the gaskets in place while you're installing and ensures they don't stick to the mating surfaces.

 

Well, as you may have guessed, the pump was installed the same day as my original post.

I had a tube of black silicone [not sure if it was RTV or not- I'm not clear on all those abbreviations ] that I hadn't opened yet with a plastic screw on dispenser tip. I cut the smallest tip I could off of it and ended up with beads that were less than 1/16th of an inch wide.

I ran a bead on the engine side, used washers and bolts to press the gasket in place and gave it an hour or so to set up. Then I ran a bead on the gasket and installed the new pump. Even after reassembling everything, I gave it the night to set up before I fired it up and topped it off with fresh antifreeze.

A few weeks later and it's still leak free.

I like these discussions tho.

PS Brad: I believe you about the chap stick, but why "cherry"? Why can't it just be regular chap stick?

 

Just out of curiosity why would your bolt/washer setup trick work any better than just bolting the water pump in place?

 

I am cursed with not being able to hold gaskets in place and bolt a part into place at the same time- doing what I did "glued" the gasket in place so I didn't have to worry about it.

 

Gonna throw in my 2 cents, if they are felt or cork gaskets, I like putting some 3M weather strip adhesive on both sides of them. Those types of gaskets seem to soak up that stuff and helps them stick. This even reduces the leaks on them old junk HDs too (and if anyone tells you those old ones don't leak - B.S. LOL).

 

Ok, nothing wrong with that, just curious. I usually just goop both sides of the gasket and then push a bolt or two through the non-threaded holes in the pump, slide the gasket over the bolts and then start bolting the pump on. This, of course, assumes that you are working on a truck or something with enough room to place the pump where it needs to go with two bolts sticking out of it...

 

Because cherry is the best flavor!