well, my water pump is dead. dead dead dead.

I had a feeling it was coming - the coolant I've been loosing the past couple of weeks couldn't be explained by an upper intake failure... things just didn't quite add up to that.

in any event, I went home for lunch today, and thought about doing a quick oil change. I pulled the car forward, and changed my mind (need to pick up a new filter wrench). Anyhew, I pulled the car back to it'* normal parking place and started walking around with my wife (she was spraying roundup at our enormous weeds... I never knew dandelions could grow to 3 feet tall).

And then it happened. I saw a big drop of what didn't look like roundup at all... it was pink. But that wasn't the only big drop... no, it was only part of a trail... leading to a pool of coolant a good foot by half a foot... left by my car sitting there for a matter of two mintues.

Sure enough, I looked back at the lesabre, peered under the bumper, and my car was peeing. I mean, it was a full out stream of coolant just pouring onto the ground (note: hasn't even been running for a good 5 minutes or so).

About the only good news was that the flow was so strong it only took about 4 seconds of having the hood open to find the offending component - my water pump.

Sad day. If I had more time, I'd throw in an electric (I've wanted one of those for ages), but I don't have the time to just let the car sit without coolant in it. So it goes, so it goes.

So tonight'* plans have changed... now I get to replace my water pump. It'* a pitty - I was hoping to not have to drain my coolant until I was doing an upper intake swap...

y not do it all in one swap????? intake and water pump and flush

the adaptor isn't quite ready to go yet... so I can't quite put the L26 mani on yet.

All in good time. I'm trying to be patient about it... trying...

I've never had to do a water pump on an L36. Is it tough?

BTW, how many miles did your first one last? I'm at 120K and getting nervous about it with my mileage.

Funny you ask. my mechanic buddy has an L36 sitting on the floor of his shop with a brand new WP on it. Customer wants the WP back. Either way, we got to talking about how bad it would be and Dan said it was a quick easy job. Looks like a pain on the L67'* but I've never really considered it.

Supposedly just a few bolts and a relocation of the power steering pump in the mean time... we'll see how it goes tonight. Going to pick up parts right after work (sadly, I don't have time to wait to get genuine gm parts...)

Update #1:

The wife reports from home that it looks like the rest of our coolant is in the driveway now... soon to be displaced by the rain that just came running through...

Indeed. I started about 20 minutes ago, and my wife decided it was time to start making dinner. I'm just about ready to pull the old pump off, but I can't find the second bolt on that power steering pump... it'* a little cramped down in there.

Soooo, I'll get a quick bite to eat (Koegel Vienna'* tonight), and we'll go from there...

Last update... finished a while ago, and went out driving. Took the wife to a few stores, and to the local Buick dealership. Found out several important things:

1. Fazolis new iced java drink SUCKS. I mean, it'* really, really bad.
2. Famous Dave'* is really awesome - if you ever have the chance, stop there.
3. Holy cow - they make this burger - it'* a half pounder. But then they put pulled pork on top of that, and jalepeno bacon on top of that, and then cheese... ohhhhh my goodness.
4. the mystical bolts for the power steering pump are at 12 and 6 o clock, through the pulley face.
5. no more leaks....
6. my water pump was in *perfect* shape... but the gasket was shot. seems to be my lot in life...

all told, about an hour in the job, mainly because I couldn't find those bolts on the power steering pump. if I had to do it again, it would be faster. of course, trying to get all of the old gasket material off ended up being one of the most time consuming parts of the whole shebang...