Grinding / rattling sound from engine

[434nova]

Well I heard a weird sound coming from the motor , I did a little digging while i was swapping my belt to a shorter one when i spun the water pump pulley and found my rattling sound , a shot water pump. What are you guys using for replacements? Does gm still sell them? I can get one from AutoZone or advanced auto. What do you guys recommend.

 

[earlbrown]

I got one from Advance Auto back in '98 or '99 and put about 150,000 on in before I replaced it on general principle.

I can't say for sure that the parts they sold then are the same as what they have now but I did exchange it under warranty when I build my new engine a couple years ago. I did hang a gear puller on the flange to pull it out .069" so the pulleys were dead nuts lined up.

 

[Pronto]

I've been told all the new water pumps are out of spec for the placement of the pulley. My buddy got a selection of spacers to push his pulley out so it would line up with the crank pulley. Took care of annoying squeakin and belt wear. Not sure where he got them but had to do some searching to find them.

 

[gusszgs]

I just did this about 2 weeks ago........brand new from local Parts store. Works perfect and zero line up issues

 

[earlbrown]

I've been told all the new water pumps are out of spec for the placement of the pulley. My buddy got a selection of spacers to push his pulley out so it would line up with the crank pulley. Took care of annoying squeakin and belt wear. Not sure where he got them but had to do some searching to find them.

I was going to mention that all of the one's I've checked weren't perfect.... but I've only checked two. One for my slant 6 and the GN pictured above. The flange is just a press fit so it's pretty easy to move it as long as it's intentional.

On a lot of cars the belt is routed where a small amount of misalignment won't matter but on TRs the belt goes straight from the crank to the water pump and they're very close to each other.