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I just put the head back on the car. New timing belt, water pump, etc… The water pump is leaking at the gasket. Are you supposed to put RTV on this gasket? I felt like the torque was very low when I put it on but moved forward. Should I snug the bolts down or just take it off and put RTV on with a new gasket?
Any helpful hints are appreciated.
Jason
The water pump gasket is very thin so it doesn’t tolerate much in the ways of flaws on the mating surfaces. I’d go ahead and torque the bolts down to 10% over spec, and if that doesn’t fix it, remove the waterpump and inspect the mating surfaces.
Either RTV or a gasket should work. Shouldn’t require both.
Also make sure both surfaces are very clean and no residual gasket material left from before. Only take a tiny bit of something in there to mess up the seal
RTV worked great. The surfaces were spotless, but there was the slightest bit of pitting on the block surface. Does this indicate some kind of ground problem? I know on boats that is an issue with electric current eating up metal.
jls8177 wrote:
Rust pitting. Aluminum and steel are pretty close in galvanic response so there isn’t much movement of electrons. When you take your head off, you’ll see some rust pitting on the block’s deck. I’ve read of folks, who didn’t want to deck the block, smearing some JBWeld on its surface to fill the pits.