Sorry to post about something small, but as a couple of you guys may know, I replaced my water pump a week and a half ago. For the most part everything is fine, but I noticed I have a tiny leak at the top end of the pump around the gasket, just under the thermostat housing. While doing the repair, I took my sweet time and thought I did a good job cleaning of the old gasket, but maybe a missed a tad.

Anyway, to the question, is there anyway to seal it without removing the water pump and dealing with scraping off gasket again? If I have to, I have to, but I was hoping I wouldn't need to.

 

Nope, no genie in a bottle will fix it.

 

Unfortunate, but I figured that'd be the case. Thanks.

 

Did you use gasket sealer when you replaced the gasket?

 

I put a thin layer of black rtv on the both sides. I wasn't sure about putting it on the engine block side, so I tried to remove what I put on.

Should I use something else?

 

When I did my water pump I just bought one of those little 50 cent packs of sealer that's hanging at the front desk of the auto parts store and it worked great. Ive put about 10k miles on it and its been fine so far. I applied a thin layer around just the pump side. I pretty much covered the entire mating surface and around all the bolt holes. Then I tried to bolt it up as even as possible. I think it sounds like you may have just missed a spot cleaning the old gasket off and it caused just enough of a gap to leak. You can fix stuff like this with a stop leak style sealer but I would highly recommend not doing so. Stop leak style sealers are just bandaids and they usually end up causing problems in the future. They gum up everything inside, including parts that weren't a problem before hand. Your best bet, take off the pump and reseal it. Use a razor blade to scrape off the old gasket, then I like to use a high number grit sand paper and lightly rough up the mating surface. Buy a new gasket, don't try to salvage your old one. Also take a rag and try to clean the area around the pump on the block that way when you go to put your pump back in you wont accidentally get any dirt or debris stuck in your sealer. Hope this helps!

 

Appreciate it. I think that's what I'll have to do. Now that I know what I'm doing, it shouldn't take as long.

I spent like 2 hours tediously scraping off gasket when I originally did it, but could have missed a tiny bit, or like you said, got a piece of crud on there when putting the new pump on.

Definitely wont use stop leak. A friend made that mistake once. I don't mind doing the work to make sure it's right. I was just curious if I could avoid it, and not have to buy coolant again.

 

It's always worth it in the end to fix things right! And don't worry if you own an xj this isnt the first time you will have to buy coolant again lol ive probably put 50 gallons of fresh coolant through my jeeps system by now haha!

 

I hear ya. This is my second XJ, so I kinda know how it goes. I just didn't have the funds to take care of the first one like I wanted to.

I actually need to do a solid coolant flush anyway, so it's actually getting drained again regardless. Just sooner than planned.

 

I'm also on my second xj and I'm hoping to finish building it soon so I can sell it and get a 99 that I can build exactly like I have always wanted it.

 

Don't feel too bad about it. Took me 3 tries to get the thermostat housing sealed on my '95

 

afraid you will have to take it off and scrape any old gasket that may still be there. i use a wire wheel on a drill. works great and won't gouge.

also, don't use black rtv. use waterpump rtv.

 

Or Indian Head Gasket Shellac.

Or Gasgacinch.

All SPARINGLY.

 

Thanks guys. Appreciate it.

Only question I have is... should I only put it on the water pump side of the gasket, or should I put it on both sides?

 

Bofum.