Thread: I am the champion! SE-R water pump install complete!

Everybody who says this is a pain in the ass is absolutely correct -- it is a pain in the ass! It wouldn't be so bad if I had smaller hands. I could imagine the Nissan engineers when they designed the car: "Round eye have fun replace this."

Since I was taking it out, I figured I'd install a Stanza water pump pulley. So the new pump is in, I'm tightening down the pulley, and it won't spin! Do a search, and you have to machine down one "rib" of the pulley for it to fit. Go to Lowes, drop $35 for an angle grinder on clearance, and problem solved.

Except for my scrapped up knuckles.

Some things that must be done:

- Remove alternator
- Remove passenger side motor mount
- Remove bracket that motor mount and alternator attach to
- Keep jack underneath motor to raise/lower it as needed to get to WP bolts (piece of 2X4 scrap underneath oil pan works great)

It also helps to have a 10mm "gear wrench" for the pulley bolts. Another trick is to zip tie the pulley on the new water pump after it's in the car so you don't have to hunt-and-peck to put the pulley bolts back in.

The FSM wasn't really clear on some of this stuff.

Pat

Thats good, Congrats, and yea the bigger pulleys need some modification of the front cover to fit.

I did that once and it wasn't fun.. I think it's easier just the take the motor out LOL .

I replaced the pump on my B13 , if you remove the pass. side mount and jack up that side of the engine it's not that hard.

Very tedious though that's for damn sure! Why would you install a pulley from a Stanza?

Definitely easier to jack the motor up after removing the pass. mount. I actually removed the front mount and the pass mount, to get to it. (98 SE-R).

yeah not fun but its really not that hard, i did one once on a b13 with the motor still in the car, again not the most difficult thing to do just takes a little time and patience. here is what i did, take the crossmember off, its easy and takes very little time, take the passenger motor mount off, jack that side of the motor up as far as you can get it, i got it to where the entire water pump was above the L/S frame of the car where the motor mount bracket is, just be careful of the wiring harness and make sure you dont have any snags, then from there it really isnt that difficult, you could take the alternator off to help manuever the engine but i dont think i did take it off. that was to clear the power steering pump from the frame.

and to think of it if you had the stuff you could do it opposite and drop the engine down far enough to clear the frame, just remove the panels if you still have them there. haha i dont on mine so it wouldnt be too bad. Its funny though because not many people have to perform this job while the motor is in the car, most do it because of prevantative maintenance while an engine is out, either one they pulled or on a jdm motor.

All the JDM motors i have bought i use the water pump that is on it and have never had any problems with one leaking, ive had jdm motors that i put 50k miles on in a 1 1/2 year time period never a problem, the very first jdm motor i bought i did replace the water pump just to be safe but then i realized these pumps are pretty freaking good stock and the sealing surface is very good and the factory sealant is very good, these things rarely leak and when they do its usually from the shaft seal going bad not the housing surface. I would just rather leave the jdm on on there especially if the motor is very clean and the area around the pump and inside the weep hole is clean, why bother.

It's fairly common for road racing/driving schools. The OEM pulley is too small and causes water cavitation, and the engine overheats. Bigger pulley, water pump spins a little slower, and therefore less prone to overheating.

On this car on a warm day at the track, the needle would slowly start to climb past the halfway point. Take it easy for a lap or so, back to normal temps. I even have an NX2000 radiator.

On my old racecar with the bigger pulley, the temp gauge just sat in the middle even on 90+ degree days.

Pat

I had a JDM engine put in around this time last year and used the water pump that came with it, which is the one that went bad. It wasn't leaking but the bearings had gone bad and caused the shaft to wobble, and eventually because of the tension on the belt, the shaft stopped spinning. So it behaved like it had seized, and the belt roasted off. (I was sitting at a stoplight, noticed a gray haze from the passenger side of the car, then smelled burning rubber, then the temp gauge started to climb!)

I thought I just had to replace the belt, which I did, but noticed the WP pulley wasn't spinning. Even eased the tension, but it didn't help. Took the belt off and wiggled the pulley, and it had some play in it.

Pat

my pump gave out on my jdm about 5K miles later the bearing got very loud.. and leaked alittle through the seep hole..it really wasnt that bad to change as i expected.. just remove the p/s hoses cooler and tank, and the mount. jack it up allittle high.. and there u go i have big hands and i was able to do it..no biggie..

the only thing that was a pain so far was changing the starter alone on a b13 sr20.. that totally sucks.. on the GA16 its a walk in the park...

I'm bringing this back up because I might have to do this in a few days. Is there enough room to get a torque wrench in there? I have an inch pound unit that I'm thinking of using for this job. Unfortunately I didn't change the water pump before putting my JDM in. I've spotted a coolant leak and it looks to be coming from the water pump area. I haven't even started the motor yet and it decided it wanted to start leaking, lol.

Also how did you guys go about removing the old sealant? Just seems like there is very little room to get a good angle to get that mounting surface nice and clean.