replaced my water pump....now a massive water leak

Hello everybody, I'm new to the board. I just picked up an 87 b2000. I replaced the timing belt and water pump this morning. Every thing went back together good.

The truck started and ran great, but now I have a massive water leak from behind the timing belt covers. I cleaned all the mating surfaces, used new gaskets, used a new lightly oiled oring on the return tube etc., and I know it is not leaking from the return tube pressed into the outlet (that much I can see). It only leaks when the engine in running.

THEN...as I'm scratching my head I look on my bench and see this bolt. I can't help but think that this bolt and my leak have something in common....I guess it could be a bad water pump right out of the box though. What do yo think??

Either way, I get to tear it all apart again.

Anybody recognize this bolt?

Ouch, might be a classic case of "what is this bolt for?"

Open her back up an look at all your connections/mounts/bolts.

You will probably need a new gasket and clean all your surfaces again. Also check to see if there are any gouges in the mounting surfaces
(if you find all your bolts are present).

Verdict is in: brand new water pump is bad. It appears that it was assembled without a seal on the impeller shaft! I'm a little disappointed.

Btw, the mystery bolt holds the lower coolant pipe on the front of the engine block

WOW, never heard of that before but I'm not surprised at all. It appears the quality of replacement parts has fallen significantly in recent years like the thread on clutch and brake master cylinder issues.

I'm glad you have it figured out and you are back on the road.

Dan

Thanks for your help Dan!

Welcome to the board too Man. Post some PIC'S when you can we love to see pictures!!

I also can't believe that there was no seal, "great QC", should never happen no matter what part of the world it was made/remanufactured. I hope to ^#$^#%*@#@^ that this was not a made-in-USA part.

But please post country of manufacture and where you purchased such part.

My own B2200 water pump came from CarQuest in mid 2011, and I'd have to look at it's box to see where it had been made.

My '98 Frontier has an O'Reilly "external"-type water pump, but it leaked last year while I was running the alternator in for a replacement, so I swapped in a new one (so it lasted like 3 years).

It was a new manufacture water pump, branded "ToughOne" from Advance Auto. I am unsure of the country of origin.

I ordered a replacement from oreilly's.

I don't buy critical parts from Advance anymore... two alternators, two brake boosters and two brake masters in 4 years!!! And the second brake booster rusted in only a few months!

My little brain's theory was that I must've considered CarQuest a higher-quality part and with the B2200 water pump being an internal part, didn't want to "go in" again.

It has nothing to do with going O'Reilly with my 1998 and 2004 Frontiers using the exact same engine parts to someday swap in a replacement water pump claiming that the '98 one went bad again; it was more like O'Reilly up north being accessible on nights and weekends, and CarQuest not.