Water pump gasket and o ring sealant?

[GTSF 38]

Evening all.

 

About to put a new water pump into the XG Outback in the morning. Not done a water pump on this car before. Was a bit of a prick of a job to get out as couldn't get the fan off till I had it in the vice in the shed. Looks like leak was between pump and block, so I want to make sure any sealant I used here will do the job and last a long time.

 

I intend to brush on some of the Permatex non hardening sealer on gasket surfaces and on the bolt threads. Sound sensible?

 

Do I do anything with the O ring? Just leave it dry?? Vaseline??

 

Cheers Lloyd 

 

 

[SLO247 1,713]

Permatex number 3 I've always used, the aviation one. Nearly anything will work. I normally brush the gaskets both sides, bolt threads too yes. I've left the o ring dry normally but they can be a pain to get on and off.

[GTSF 38]

Cool. Thanks for the info. Cheers Lloyd

[deankxf 20,266]

that o ring is a prick, i ended up reusing the old one as i suspect it wasn't that old.. could not get it back together with the new oring.. even bought a "correct" one from ford(which looked pretty much the same other than being green)

[GTSF 38]

Thanks for the heads up. Was hoping it was going to be straight forward from here on! Sounds like the o ring is both a bit too oversize and too hard. The original o ring looks like a collar rather than an o ring - very flat and wide, so won't have the option of reusing.  

 

Have ran a tap over the bolt threads to get the old loctite or whatever off of them to make sure at least they'll go back in smooth.

[bear351c 10,270]

Good idea to chase the threads, always have muck on them from the old goo, and coolant.  The o-ring would best be installed with Moly grease, or silicone grease, but you mentioned the old one was flat and wide, suggesting it was squashed pretty good.!  Permatex (Loctite) is fine, or hi-temp RTV. 

 

FYI - RTV stands for room temperature vulcanising, therefore will only set when out of the tube. 

[GTSF 38]

Mission accomplished. Thanks for the tips.

 

Running a die over the bolts and a tap into the threads made it so much easier. O ring was good as gold! Went on well. Only had one blonde moment messing up the reverse thread trying to put the fan back on.

 

Did a few 'while you're at it' jobs too. New radiator rubber mount, blew out the David Attenborough collection of australian insects between the radiator and condensor, wire brushed all the pulleys, and put on new belts. No more belt squeal on start up.

 

I reckon the leak was coming from the water pump bolt at 3 o'clock position. Other 3 bolts have blind threads but this one goes into the coolant. Had rust all the way to the bolt head. Put one of the other bolts back into this position with good mob of permatex.