So I went out for a short drive this morning and ended up coming home early when I realized I didn't have my phone with me. I left the car running as I went into the house and came back outside and saw a big puddle of water under the front.. what the heck??
I open the hood and couldn't find it initially. I opened the radiator and found it was very low. I continued to let the car idle as I had a hose right there. I topped it off and discovered the leak. You can see it spraying out the back of the water pump. I have a short cell phone video of it
I just bought this water pump at the very end of May from Summit, and it's one of their house brands. I called them up and the girl said they would warranty it, even though I was past 90 days. She offered me a Weiand pump in exchange. I looked it up, and it was $50 cheaper than the one I bought. Why didnt I buy that one to begin with? At first I was a little annoyed that I was being offered a cheaper pump, but the girl had also mentioned that a few of those Summit pumps had come back. So I'm gonna run down to Summit later and get the Weiand pump.
If I'm really lucky, maybe that's the weird noise I'm hearing under the hood, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.
That's a real pisser (sorry, I couldn't help myself). I used to have a noise in my water pump on the Caddy, then the main shaft sheared off and took out my radiator... anything is possible.
After the Browns game, I made my way to Summit, returned the old pump and picked up the Weiand. They credited me the difference in price too, which was cool. Came home and got it all back together. I fixed the belt alignment issue with the power steering pump too. The underhood noise remains, however.
So by Sunday night I had the car back together and running. New pump went in without any problems and I also fixed the alignment issue with the power steering pump. Monday night I finished wiring in my new temp gauge, so I finally have a working oil pressure and water temp gauge again.
Tonight, I just took it for a small lap of Chesterland and it ran great. I still can't get the lockup to engage on the 700r4. It looks like I'm just supposed to apply +12v on pin A of the 700r4's harness and it should lock when it goes into 4th. Worst case, I'll have to pull the pan. I also need to figure out the leak, which is I believe from the dipstick tube. I put a new seal in when I installed it in the car and suspect I didnt' get something 100% right. Those are the last major items.
It's soooo nice having my car back, even in limited capacity. The engine combination is strong, the EFI is working good, it looks really cool with the hood up, the new fuel tank with in-tank pump has been perfect, and i can feel what a world of difference the overdrive makes. This thing should be pretty cool to drive around.
There was a leak around the dip stick tube on the Ford OD trans that went in the F100. New O-ring didn't fix it. Internet search showed that to be a common problem that can be fixed with a little RTV. Worked for me.
When the dip stick tube was first pulled there was old RTV there. Guess it wasn't a new problem.
So I finally got the Chevelle up on the lift to check out my transmission issues. I'm thinking part of my problem with the lockup was that I was applying +12v to the wrong wire! I got the meter out and verified which wire goes to which pin and even made notes. I hope I didn't damage anything sending power down the wrong wire. I'm wondering if I'll be able to feel the lockup by testing it with the drive wheels off the ground.
The leak is not quite as clear-cut. I had thought earlier that it might be the dipstick tube, especially since I had put a new seal in there when I installed the trans. When I looked at it closer, I didn't see much evidence of oil up there. I checked the tightness on all the pan bolts, and a few of them did give me a little more turn than they should've. Not a 1/4 turn, but more than just a smidge. I wonder if I should just replace the pan gasket for good measure.
As a side note, Holley is turning out to be an excellent garage dog. Give her a chunk of 2x4 and she'll keep herself occupied for hours between chewing it, and sliding it around on the floor.
I can get it to high 50s or 60 pretty easily -- plenty warm to work in. It hasn't really gotten below 40 in there yet. I'm still using kersosene heaters this year.
Pretty minor change, but I finally got my nice spark plug wires installed. I made these while the engine was on the stand a while back. They were a pain to install and wouldn't work with the large-cap HEI that I was first using on the car, so I had some red ones from a generic set I bought. I didn't like them draped over the valve covers.
Passenger side fits awesome, the driver's side I had to use one of those high-temp sleeves. It'l work for now.
