Is changing the water pump on a 95 sc 400 a very big deal? What's involved? I am pretty good mechanically-my last car was a stroked lt1 transam that I built myself, just thought someone on here may have a little doit yourself experience in this area and could give me a heads up. I have antifreeze leaking like crazy around the pump housing and pooling in the lower intake area. Any help would be marvelous! thanks

 

It CAN be an ordeal. Factor 1 FULL day, as you must remove a lot of the timing stuff in order to get to the pump, like the AC compressor, which needs to be moved but NOT diconected from the regrierant lines ( I did mine about a year ago.

You would be VERY well advised to replace the timing belt, all the rollers the timing belt rolls on, the rotors and distributor caps. You will need a tube of the balck gasket goo to seal the pump, there is NO gasket (at least in the 93 V8). To remove the T-belt, you have to remove the belt pulley in front. and remove the ac compressor from its mounts (DO NOT REMOVE THE REFRIG LINES). They claim you need a "special tool" but all I used was a big socket and my over-sized air impact driver. Since you have to drain the cooling system, replace the thermostat at the same time as well.

I would suggest studing all you can before you start AND have all the parts you need.

Would I do it again? YES, but I have been through it. The first time is slow. Best to get the real shop manual, it was the map I used, although some of the stuff did not need to be removed, like the harmonic balancer

Good Luck!

028

 

many thanks! I'll give er a shot and probably cuss myself until i realize how much $$ Im savin'.

 

Yep, just go slow, and have all the parts you need. You will be suprised how much you will save. I got my water pump on Ebay for 75 bucks. It is an ASSCO made in Japan. One you change all the crap, you won't have to deal with it for a long, long time. Make sure you get the gaskets for the thermostat too.

Again, I would STONGLY advise you to use the official shop manual. The CD Rom that shows up on E-bay for sale, which I bought, was way to limited, and didn't have all the information I needed in a "follow along" format. What I did was make a copy of the pertainent shop manual pages, and checked of what I had removed in one color of majc marker, and used another color to check what I put back. There are about 15 pages. Again, some of the stuff they tell you to remove like the harmonic balancer is not required unless you want to change the front oit seal.

Have fun, and count the monet you will save!

I got most of my parts through Steve at Carson Toyota.

928

 

Dave...how long did your water pump last on your 95 SC400?

Also, if you don't spring for the official shop manual, the www.lextreme.com site has instuctions for changing timing belt/water pump: http://www.lextreme.com/timing.htm.

 

ooops! accidentally unsubscribed to my own thread-duh! My water pump lasted only 77k miles. It was a florida car-perhaps it had a little extra duty. Actually, the timing belts were replaced before i bought the car-so im guessing that the pump may actually be allright (allthough im replacing it) and they didnt get the gasket sealed very good when it was put back together. Bought the pump-now just have to set aside enough time to install! Wish me luck guys.
another question: do you think that these cars are slightly overrated HP wise? I have a hard time believing that my car has 250 hp (95sc). My old car was a stroked lt1 and it was running 12.1's, so im slightly "tainted", but shouldnt I be able to hang with an older fox body mustang on the road at speed with that kinda HP rating?? They seem to pull me pretty good. Just thougts...... what rear wheel hp do these things lay down stock? My old Trans Am stock was 275 rated hp, and it was a hella lot different than this car. I know it had a lot more torque-perhaps that's the difference?