If you're going to be doing "Big-jobs" on your own ride, ... get yourself a comprehensive Workshop Manual. For 25 or 30 bucks, you can pick-up a HAYNES™ ( or other ) Manual that will guide you through doing tough jobs you take-on yourself. The valuable information contained in a Shop Manual virtually pays for the Manual the very first time you use it. Considering most Service Centers and Dealerships are charging $90 - $125 per hour; having a reference manual. with step-by-step how its done, ... right ... is worth the price of admission!

 

^Trying to help someone help themself.^

 

Hey Rick or is it Dick? If your going to join a forum 1 day ago and reply like this maybe you should take your shit elsewhere. I asked a simple question. Have your mom bring you another Hot Pocket to the basement while you prove your manhood on the keyboard.
LMFBO!
😁

 

Hey Rick or is it Dick? If your going to join a forum 1 day ago and reply like this maybe you should take your shit elsewhere. I asked a simple question. Have your mom bring you another Hot Pocket to the basement while you prove your manhood on the keyboard.
LMFBO!
😁

My mom went to paradise a week after I graduated from college.
43 years ago.
I forgive you.

 

I couldn't find any good write ups or videos on it. Typically water pumps you just take off what you need to do access all the bolts, remove and replace. I usually drain all the coolant from the radiator as the water pump is typically pretty low and would drain all the coolant anyways in a more messy fashion. Once the new one is in fill the radiator and bleed the system (if there is a specific procedure...follow that) and you are good to go.

If you end up tackling it yourself and are willing, it would be awesome if you took pictures or made a write up of what you had to do. Always nice to have the info documented for the next guy.

 

I replaced mine 3 weeks ago. I used this video as a guide.

GM AC Delco branded water pump was $113 on Amazon with new bolts and gasket vs $335 the dealer wanted for the pump.

These were my steps since I didn't follow the video all the way.

TAKING OFF THE PUMP
1. Disconnect the battery.
2. Lossen the 4 bolts on the Water Pump Pullet while the serpentine belt is still on.
3. Remove the serpentine belt, by pulling toward the front of the car. The socket on the pulley is a 1/2" size and make a note of draw a diagram of how the serpentine belts routes before removal.
4. Now take off the 4 bolts on the water pump pulley and remove the pulley
5. Take off the 6 bolts holding the water pump in. A 3/8" electric ratchet wrench and a small 2-3" extension socket speeds this process up big time, due to the tight space.
6. Pull the water pump off and be prepared for alot of coolant to come out. I would suggest having a plastic bag below to catch as much a possible, because my oil drain pan below caught half of what spilled out.
7. Pull off the Water pump gasket.
8. Scrape off any of the old gasket remains from the surface. This seemed to be the longest part of the job, just making sure it was as clean as possible

PUTTING THE PUMP BACK ON
1. Put the new bolts into the pump and place the gasket on, otherwise it will slip off. This will avoid having to mess with any stick gasket adhesives which I tried, but it still came off, unless I had the bolts in to hold the gasket n place.
2. Screw in the new bolts. Put in the bolts on alternating sides of the pump to make sure it goes on evenly
3. Place the Water pump pulley back on and tighten the 4 bolts tight, but not too tight ( NOT SURE WHAT THE TORQUE SPECS ARE)
4. Place the Serpentine Belt back on. (This can be annoying getting the belt back on the narrow opening of the tensioner pulley, all while making sure the rest of the belt stays in place, but really isnt hard.
5. Tighten the 4 bolts of the water pump pulley some more, now that the serpentine belt is back on.
6. Connect the battery.
7. Remove the cover for the coolant reservoir and fill it to the top. (A gallon of Dex Cool will be needed)
8. Start the car with the Coolant Reservoir top off and gradually add coolant as the car warms up to operating temperature.
9. Once the car is warmed up (typically will take like 8-10 minutes), turn on the heat. (I turned mine on HIGH for 2-3 minutes) and watched the coolant level in the reservoir and added some more if I saw it go down any further until it stayed level, then I was sure there was no air in the system at that point.
10. Put the cover back on the coolant tank and take a quick spin and the coolant level didn't drop, so I know the job was done correct. If it drops any more, fill it up some more and if it stays level, you are done, unless you have a leak elsewhere.

In all, this took me maybe 2-3 hours, with the longest task was cleaning off the old gasket remains, which wasn't much, but I wanted it extra clean and placing the serpentine belt back on, because I kept dropping it when trying to pull the tensioner towards me, and the cleaning up all the spilled coolant of the ground. I didn't flush my coolant as I lost 2 gallons worth of coolant over a 3-week span, so alot of coolant in the system was new, but this wouldn't be a bad time to do a coolant drain if you are due for one. You will see a white drain plug on the radiator near the passenger side on the bottom, so having a hose to have it drain into will make it way less messy.

I would put aside 1.5-2 hours to do this job, start to finish.


I ordered this on Amazon, and is currently $101 at the time of this post.
ACDelco GM Original Equipment 251-749 Engine Water Pump
This Water Pump Kit comes with the following 3 parts.
Water Pump - GM (12657499)
Water Pump Assembly Gasket - GM (12660159)
(6) Bolts 11562426

 

Thank you for the video and step by step. I have the pump. NAPA $105+tax. This will save me some time.

 

^+1. Nice write-up and video SAAN! Mods, could we "sticky" this?

 

^ SAAN, do any of the 6 h2o pump mount bolts run through/into water jackets and require sealant?

 

I dont think so, I just replaced the old bolts with the new bolts and have not seen one drop of coolant of the ground, or overheating and I've driven it for 2 weeks no with no issue, so im guessing that is all there was to it.

 

yes, as long as you had contaminate it but, yes it's reusable

 

as long as have not contaminate it. drain in to a clean drain pan

 

I just replaced mine a few weeks ago. I didn't find videos either. It took longer to move the fusebox , battery and the cross bar gizmo than to actually change the pump. I took a picture of belt routing and pics of where everyone was before. I just let the coolant drain and added new dexcool when done. I ensuring the old gasket comes off by scraping it then using Indian head on the new one. While your down there, check everything else too. I replaced my idler pulley at that time. Good luck.

 

You Tube has several videos for the Impala 3.6 water pump remove and replacement.

 

Way easier on the Impala versus the Lambda SUV platforms, I saw them having to take out the passenger headlight just to replace the waterpump on The Enclave

 

one thing I’ve noticed on this repair is everyone has differant ideas of what proper torques are(& they’re all rather sure they’re right, sRE to mention).. on the 12, 6cly, 3.6 Iv come to a somewhat agreed(1- a rather detailed repair instruction & 2- all data repair instruction) consesus, yes agreed meaning 2 similar opinions, that it’s 8’lbs for both(or all data says 106 “lbs, which is 8.7’ lbs for both. the bolts are supposedly TTY(meaning stretch, or ‘tighten to yield’ bolts), which are a 1 time deal & supposedly require new such bolts & a special tool to tilt at the end of tightening sequence.. I’ve read the advantage of these rediqulous concoctions are that they grab 25% stronger per torque setting(which would be 10 to 10.9 torque). I’ve also read that the only such size bolts(WHICH BTW ARE coarse threaded 6 10mm m6’s at 1 inch & 4 at 1/2” for pulley wheel) that can be tightened to the amazingly poweful 10.9’lbs(25% higher than TTYs 8.7), are ironically 10.9 bolts. that’s a tricky part of this whole deal, I’ve already read 30’ lbs & 21’ lbs, & over tightened them 1c, might be an aluminum engine, threads in engine block might be stripped, bolts may break on way out(flopped-on the 1 Uz ttys) welll C the bad nUz or not soon enuf. BUT IF(& IdOnO, IF the engine block &/water pump threads can take 25% higher torque, the proper replacement bolts for a 12 impala are 6flange hex cap 10.9 quality/strength coarse threaded zinc or car or cOted flange hex cap bolts, & 4 1/2” ones of the same(with a washer for those 4), all 10 of these torqued to 10.9 ‘lbs(ish)- maybe 129-130” lbs for the pump to engine ones & 132-134 for pulley to pump. & all those stats are just for the 12(& probley 13), & only might not wreck threads - in short, the dumbness, the deliberately engineered nearly absolutely complete & total deliberate dumness of engineering these days, just to make some super expensive repair $?… is astounding. TTY bolts, they say it’s to save $ on slightly smaller bolts, is it? eaumnn, yeah I’m gonna go with a ‘nO😯’ on that 1😒 ladtly about dexcool pouring out of engine.. in a 12, there should be no more then 3 gallons in there(likely less if there’s a leak).. if you lift drivers side, drain peacock will drain out at least a gallon, more quickly if reserve tank cap is removed, then if you tilt car other way & remove lower radiator hose another gallon flopd out quickly.. lastly if raise car at strong tilt on the side water pump is on, only a puny 1/3 to 1/2 gallon lol come barLing out when you remove pump.. & if you catch all this & are gonna reuse it, a paint strainer(which are super cheap), dumping from big flat catch bucket, into regular clean bucket, & again, & so on) is a quick easy way to carefully clean radiator fluid

 

U talk 2 much EZwA😒

 

Question I’m doing this job the seal for the water pump I got was cloth, unlike the seal and black sealant I found on mine. What should I do?