If you buy all your parts from Autozone, tell them you want a fleet discount, 20%....OR you will go to NAPA.
Can't hurt to ask...........Paul

Latest quick update---I'll fill in the details later, with pics, of course---4.9 PFI FIERO came over yesterday and changed the water pump (not an easy job) and once we got done, discovered thick white smoke coming from the exhaust when we started her up.

WTF? Blown head gasket? Aaarrrrggghhhh!

The oil is the same regular dirty brown color it was before we changed everything 'cause it needs to be changed. The engine isn't running hot and the water pump is working (we can hear it and feel that water going through the hoses.)

So what now? Grrrr....

I posted a more detailed desription of the problem in the Technical section and asked for input, instructions and guidance.

Haynes and Chilton manuals have zero on head gasket replacement. Apparently my trusty neighborhood AutoZone has the part, but I still have to get it on the car. Is this something I can do myself (keeping in mind that I'm not exactly schooled in the intricacies of auto repair)?

Help!

--Tress

See my reply to your other post...

JazzMan

This is one of the advantages of buying a car from PFF members. 1-99.9% are honest. 2- If the car has problems, we usually already know about it because they have likely already started posting here or in tech about those problems before deciding to sell it.

I'm not saying there was anything shady about your purchase, just saying most of us know each other at least by reputation here, and try to be upfront always.

Good luck. I bought a cheap 88 Coupe a few years ago and wound putting into it about four times what I paid for it to make it reliable. I call it 'The B;ack Hole' because of it's ability to suck in any money that comes into it's gravity well. Maybe you should rename your's 'The White Hole'.

As promised, here are the details on the water pump install.....

One of my New Orleans fiero buddies from the forum, 4.9 PFI FIERO, volunteered to come over on his day off to change my water pump for me (see above post when he had to push me home after the car overheated). (Again, thanks so much dude!)

In exchange, I agreed to help out and provide nourishment. We set a time of 10:30am--I provided a wakeup call at 9am, just in case. lol He stopped by and picked up the water pump, new rubber valve cover gasket (since my newly installed cork one was still leaking) and a screw extracter (since one of the bolts in the valve cover is broken off and we have to get it out in order to put in the new screws that I'd already bought).

He went to three different AutoZone stores to find the pulley tool, but they were all out, so I called another store and went off to pick it up.

When he arrived, I could tell that he was definitely ready to work. He made a few trips out from his car bringing things in:

a cool socket set: (I gotta get one of these)

and a heavy-duty socket set--complete with torque wrench. Now this I have got to get!

When I went over to AutoZone to pick up the pulley, I just happened to pick up another accessory for "The Hottie":

Perfect fit! LOL

The first plan of attack was to remove the belt (that I'd newly installed a couple of days before, ggrrr) and go at it from the top. After most of the screws that held the water pump in place, we discovered that there was a screw that we couldn't get to unless we removed the compressor for the A/C. (This one little screw would provide a lot more headaches to come.)

In the process of removing the bracket and screws that held the A/C compressor in place, he discovered that my exhaust manifold has a crack in it that they'd apparently tried to weld together. I tried to get a pic of it, but this was as close as I could get.

Besides the rusty look of it, I'm thinking that may be on the list of additional replacements. He said it's not too big of a deal---it'll just affect my gas mileage--but I'll see what I can do about switching that out a bit later.

The water pump was a bear to get out for the simple fact that the stupid A/C compressor did not want to cooperate. Wouldn't it have been alot simpler for GM to have just drilled a hole through that bracket so we wouldn't have to go through all of that extra work in such a tight space? But, nooooo, they of course had to make it more difficult. Sheez, what a way to make sure that your service department does its quota of jobs. LOL

----cont---

quote Originally posted by Paul Prince: If you buy all your parts from Autozone, tell them you want a fleet discount, 20%....OR you will go to NAPA. Can't hurt to ask...........Paul

firemen or police get 10% off
so ya, its easy enough to pretend to be one of those.. lol

---cont--
After wrestling with that one little screw that did not want to cooperate, we finally got the pump out. (I say we, but all I did was to hold some wires and help unscrew a couple of bolts.) Here's my Fiero buddy trying to remove the pulley from the old pump:

He couldn't get it off by himself, so he took the old pump to AutoZone along with the pulley tool that I picked up to have everything switched over to the new pump.

Here's a pic of the new water pump with the swapped out pulley:

He applied the sealant and new gasket---

and we were in the home stretch! (or so we thought)

Now, we maneuvered the water pump into the area so that the sealant wouldn't get stuck to any of the parts on the way down, then proceeded to rescrew everything in. We got to the very last screw that had to go into the water pump, and IT WOULDN'T GO IN. Aaarrrggghhh.

So we had two choices: 1) leave it out and reconnect everything else, or 2) take the water pump out again and realign everything to make sure. Personally, I was fine with option 1, (I wasn't even the one doing all the work and I was all set to just chuck it), but he wanted to make sure that it was done the right way, so option 2 was the choice.

We removed all of the other screws (which wasn't a very quick process because there was only so far you could turn the socket because of the small amount of space available); took out the water pump; reapplied the sealant; and checked the hole where the screw was supposed to go to make sure that it wasn't blocked.

This time when we reinstalled the pump, we started with the screw that had given us all the trouble. It was located towards the bottom of the water pump and not easy to reach. This time, it went right in. WTF? So we proceeded to screw all the other bolts back in (for the second time) on the pump.

Since we'd started around 12:30pm initially and there were additional delays because of him having to go back to AutoZone to get the pulley transferred; us having to take everything out again and reinstall the pump because of one stupid screw; and our impromptu comedy show that we were treated to by one of the guys from the neighborhood--"Onion". He had us in stitches and made it really hard to stay focused on the job at hand. LOL

The way our house is situated, it sits in between two other houses and you can look across the fence and see what's going on next door. Well, one of my neighbors, is a pretty big guy--6'3 or so, about 300 pounds. (He even squeezed himself into "The Hottie"--I was terrified that he wouldn't be able to get out. LOL) So he comes back from picking up some Popeye's chicken and sees us working on the car, so decides that he's going to sit outside in his yard and watch. Well, there's this old stone bench in the front of his yard that everyone knows has some cracks in the foundation. I guess no one told him, 'cause he makes a beeline for the bench and proceeds to sit down to enjoy his chicken and watch us work. Then--you guessed it--the legs from the bench broke and he fell over! Now, we're a bit stunned at first, and we all look over to make sure he's okay. Then, he says, "No problem, I'll just stay down here and eat my chicken." That broke it--we were practically ROTFL(Our)AO. LOL So for the rest of the day, Onion kept up a steady stream of jokes, replaying the fall and kept us in stitches with his impersonations. Hahaha

It made for alot of fun, and not too much progress on "The Hottie". hehe So by the time we got everything put back together on the water pump, it was starting to get dark and we still had to reconnect the A/C compressor and belt and I didn't have a work lamp. (next on the list of things to buy)

So we improvised:

and used a table lamp and long heavy duty extension cord.

Here's a pic of everything put back together:

So we get it all put back together and fire her up. The tension bolt doesn't tighten the belt as much as it should, so there's a little play in it, which of course, causes the squealing sound as soon as I start her up. We'll look for a tension spring, no problem to replace.

We add coolant and could hear and feel the water pumping through the hose leading to the radiator--great! It works!

Then, all of a sudden, thick white smoke starts billowing out the exhaust and the engine starts shaking! I'm like, WTF??? We immediately turn it off and just stare at each other. "What's wrong with my engine?" I ask---or more like wail. After a couple of phone calls for diagnostic purposes and checking out a few telltale signs, the diagnosis---blown head gasket.

Now the next phase in "The Hottie" Diaries begins...installing a new head gasket. I decide I'm going to go pick up the parts and post in the Technical section to get some guidance and instructions, then tackle it myself.

This should be fun.

Oh, did I mention that by this time it's really late and after I force my buddy to actually eat the food I'd promised him, he swapped out both of my headlight assemblies before he left--at around 12:15am. Turns out he'd had a couple of extras that he wasn't using and brought them over to see if I could use them. Now I've got too newish headlight assemblies; which was good timing because it seemed like the motors were stripping in the ones that came with the car.

Fiero buddies---great to have. + for you dude!

Now, my next adventure begins......stay tuned for the next installment of "The Hottie" Diaries....Engine Adventures!

--Tress

[This message has been edited by Miss-Tress007 (edited 04-10-2005).]

quote Originally posted by Miss-Tress007: The water pump was a bear to get out for the simple fact that the stupid A/C compressor did not want to cooperate. Wouldn't it have been alot simpler for GM to have just drilled a hole through that bracket so we wouldn't have to go through all of that extra work in such a tight space? But, nooooo, they of course had to make it more difficult. Sheez, what a way to make sure that your service department does its quota of jobs. LOL ----cont---

Extra work equals extra monies for GM when people "give-up" and drive it to Pontiac. They know what their doing.

ah headgasket= easy..i gotta replace my clutch. did m buddies headgasket on his civic.... i hate those engines. and it wasnt bad at all (didnt even have good tools!)

quote Originally posted by Miss-Tress007: Haynes and Chilton manuals have zero on head gasket replacement. Apparently my trusty neighborhood AutoZone has the part, but I still have to get it on the car. Is this something I can do myself (keeping in mind that I'm not exactly schooled in the intricacies of auto repair)? Help! --Tress

Haynes page 64, Chiltons page 92 cylinder head.

quote Originally posted by Miss-Tress007: The water pump was a bear to get out for the simple fact that the stupid A/C compressor did not want to cooperate. Wouldn't it have been alot simpler for GM to have just drilled a hole through that bracket so we wouldn't have to go through all of that extra work in such a tight space?

I tried to warn you about that nightmare. No one told me initially and I couldn't imagine how to get the water pump off. I'm glad you figured it out. That pulley is easier take off if you remove it while the pump is still in the car. that way you can use the belt to keep it for rotating.

It wouldn't be so bad if you only had to do these things once. It's really frustrating after the second and third time.

[This message has been edited by jscott1 (edited 04-12-2005).]

Head gasket on the 2.5 is not that bad at all.

quote Originally posted by Miss-Tress007: ... discovered that my exhaust manifold has a crack in it that they'd apparently tried to weld together.

Very common (both cracks and welds). I have replaced my exhaust manifold twice, and have another spare in the garage. I won't do a water pump however. Props to ya for tackling that one!

I have an extra exhaust manifold if you need it, you pay for the shipping and its yours, I was going to scrap it anyway since I junked the last of my 4cly yeasterday for yet another engine swap.

quote Originally posted by OH10fiero: I have an extra exhaust manifold if you need it, you pay for the shipping and its yours, I was going to scrap it anyway since I junked the last of my 4cly yeasterday for yet another engine swap.

Thanks for the offer. I'll definitely let you know if I need it. We found a 4 cylinder at a local yard and we're gonna go check it out Wednesday or Thursday to see what' salvageable.

Thanks!

--Tress

just make sure when doing head gasket, that you dont have leftover bolts(unless replaced..).... i kinda know from experience.....

Did the manual say to put sealant on any of the water pump screws? You must do that on some of the V6 screws or water will leak thru those screw holes. I never messed with 4 cyl so I dont know. Id check that before I pulled the head.

quote Originally posted by rogergarrison: Did the manual say to put sealant on any of the water pump screws? You must do that on some of the V6 screws or water will leak thru those screw holes. I never messed with 4 cyl so I dont know. Id check that before I pulled the head.

Yes it does.

Update?

Reading this thread is about the same as reading "The Green Mile" series of little books. I can't wait for the next episode. It's got it all, horror, suspense, intrigue, keeps you on the edge of your seat kinda stuff.

Paulcal (and other interested observers),

I started on the next set of repairs--changing the head on the engine--and started a new thread to chronicle my exploits. I haven't done anything in about a week (had to get back to work), but I'll post an update to it soon.

In the meantime, check out the next installment in "The Hottie" Diaries: Engine Adventures--the link is listed below.

Enjoy!

--Tress

The Complete "Hottie" Diaries:
Volume I:First Checkup Ups & Downs: It Runs, Sort of
Volume II:Engine Adventures--Head Gasket Replacement