Well I’m new to this so here goes nothing. I bought this 1989 Econoline about 2 weeks ago for $400. Currently it doesn’t run because the last guy says the water pump went out and when trying to remove the pump he cracked the timing cover and broke every bolt. So here I am. The water pump is completely stuck on. I’ve tried dousing it in PB blaster, hammering it, taking a slide hammer to it, torching up what’s left of the bolts and torching where the timing cover meets the block, more PB blaster, and more hammering. But nothing is making this water pump budge. Hopefully someone out there can give me any suggestion to get it off without ****ing up the threads in the block.

 

I would go a head and remove the 2 hoses left on. Remove the timing marker and then the harmonic balancer pulley. get the idler pulley and perhaps the secondary air injection pump out of the way. You are probably going to wind up replacing the timing cover... Is that water pump cast iron or aluminum?

Is the radiator and AC condenser out? If so then that gives you a lot more room to work on this project. If the AC was working just fine before, then it might be better to leave the condenser in place and try to work standing on your head!

After everything is out of your way, you will need a very good dremel or other rotary type tool with some good cutters. If the water pump is aluminum then the job will be much easier. You will need to use the rotary tool and cut slots into water pump housing where the bolts go through. Once you cut the slots, use a small sharp chisel and break as much of the material, surrounding the bolts, off of the pump as you can. Do not try to remove the bolts till you get the pump off.
Once you have the pump off then you will have a second chance to try to remove the bolts. Several of them go through the timing cover and you may find that they too are seized in place due to corrosion cause by the steel bolts passing through the aluminum housing. You are going to have to go slow and take your time.
The thread link below is from a thread i started about a broken thermostat bolt. You may have that problem too!
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post15856813

 

thanks for the reply man!
i took your advice and got the water pump off, but just like any other $400 van I ran into another problem. In the two holes behind the water pump there was a mound of this yellow crystallized mushy substance. I’m not sure what that means for the engine itself. I’m assuming I should just clean it out by hand as best as I can, slap on the new water pump and timing cover and hopefully the van runs.
Also if anyone has any good tips to get these bolts out of the block without ****ing the block that would be great

 

Well before you go much further, you might want to go a head and remove the thermostat housing and thermostat. Be careful as those 2 bolts will break real easy too. If you even think they might break, I would go a head and break the ears off of the thermostat housing like I did on the one bolt I had left. If you put the housing back on without the thermostat, you can put a water hose in the housing, seal it with something, and flush out the block to a point. At least see what comes out. The water will come out from the water pump openings in the timing cover. Do this before you take the timing cover off so as to not get water down in the oil pan.

When taking the timing cover off,,, remember there are 4 bolts on the bottom holding the oil pan on to the bottom of the timing cover. Also the rectangle over one of the bolt holes, that is going to be one of the harder bolts to get out.. You are going to have to break some of the housing off from around the bolts. Here again there is a lot of corrosion built up around them the thickness of the timing cover.





Be very careful when breaking the aluminum around the bolts. You do not want to break the cover, only the outer edges of the bolt holes because if you break the cover then you can get metal shavings and trash down in the oil pan and you do not want that. Once you break the edges off then you can spray some penetrating oil and let it soak and then try to remove the bolts.




Another suggestion is to drill beside each bolt. Use a small bit at first and be careful not to drill into the block. I would mark the drill bit with tape or something and stop an 1/8" before reaching the block. Repeat this with a larger bit until you have cut through the side of the aluminum housing. Then you can snap it off the metal around the bolt pretty easy. The broken bolts should come out of the block fairly easy once you get the aluminum out of the way.




Yes, you do not know anything more then what the past owner told you. Once you get the timing cover off, check and make sure the timing marks line up and check for excessive slack in the chain and wear on the gears. There is a another way to check timing chain slack. While you have good access to the harmonic balancer, clean the timing marks. using a socket on the crank shaft bolt, line the timing marks up to "0". Remove the distributor cap and watch the rotor as you rock the crankshaft back and forth slowly just until the rotor starts to move. If there is more then 7 degrees slack in the chain, then it needs replaced. If you knew for sure that the van ran fine then i would replace the timing chain and gears anyway because it you know what work is involved just to get to it...

There is perhaps another test you could try and that is a cylinder leak down test. If the van has been sitting for a long time though, I don' t now how accurate it would be.
A cylinder leak down test will normally tell you if you have bad rings, burnt valves, or bad head gasket, but if the engine has sat for a long period of time then the rings or a valve could be stuck...
I was just trying to think of things you could test before you spend a lot of money.

 

Alright well, it’s been a little while but I finally got around to the van. I used Anna’s helpful tips and a tricks and was able to get the timing cover off. I cut away as much material as possible from around the studs and then used a stud extractor and was able to pop those suckers out. I checked on the timing chain once the cover was out and it had some play in it but I figured it was good enough for a $400 van and will probably replace it in the future. I slapped a new timing cover on, new gaskets, and replaced the old thermostat. I flushed out whatever that yellow junk was in the engine and put on the new water pump and bolted everything back on.
This afternoon I decided to throw some fresh gas in the tank and fire up the old girl aaaaaaand she was not too happy to be woken up from sleeping for 2 years. There was a lot of white smoke coming from the exhaust. Screeching from the belt, and she would idle pretty roughly with a lot of shaking and sputtering. But all in all, shes alive
So here’s the plan of action, I figured the fuel line fuel injectors, and fuel pump are old and clogged causing it to idle so poorly. I’m gonna drop the gas tank clean it out, replace the fuel line and possibly the fuel pump, and replace the fuel injectors and hope that solves my smoke, shaking, and idling issues.
If anyone can help me out with the location and steps of replacing fuel injectors and what’s the best fuel injectors to buy, that would be lovely. Thanks!

 

You went thru all of that work and didn't replace the timing set? I hate doing things twice. When you have it tore down that far, it's the best time to swap it out.

Did you put anything on the threads or the bolts when you installed them? You want thread sealer on any bolts that don't go into a blind hole. And I always coat the the bolts/threads on any bolt that goes into or thru aluminum. That way this issue doesn't happen again in the future.

 

Injectors are rather expensive. You can easily clean them. They make a fuel injector tester:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B06W2MP3JF

I used this to actuate my injectors and blast through them with carb cleaner, forwards and backwards. I shoved the injector into a piece of rubber tubing, clamped off the other end of the tubing, and poked a tiny hole into the side of the tubing. I stuck the carb cleaner blast straw into the tiny hole. This way I could force cleaner through the injector under pressure. I blasted mine into a peanut butter jar so I could see what came out. Very very little particulate matter was in the jar when I was done.

Before I went to the trouble of replacing the injectors, I'd replace the fuel filter and try again.

Steve

 

I am glad to hear that you got it apart and back together. That was quite a job... BUT like Fordman75 said!

Steve is correct too about cleaning the injectors and changing the filter... I was going to replace my injectors till I learned that a set of Motorcraft injectors would cost around $400.00.
You can bet a rebuild kit for around $10.00. It includes the o-rings, spacer, filters. and pintal caps. If I am lucky like Steve, I wont need to change the filter and can just spray out the injectors but my van sat for years so I don't know what trash might be in the injector filter.

I am not pushing this brand in the picture because I haven't even tried them yet.




I also got lucky and found a Motorcraft injector for $18.34 and bought it just in case I were to damage one.




I think before I did too much more work, I would do a compression check and look at the condition of the spark plugs... I think I mentioned that you could have a sticking valve, burnt valve, or stuck piston ring from the van sitting. If the water pump was bad then the PO could have blown a head gasket if he continued to drive the van and doing a compression check would tell you wither you need to worry about that or not . Hopefully the the test will come out good. A better test is a cylinder leak down test but you need a air compressor. A standard compression test though, will tell you if you need to come back and do a cylinder leak down test.