The water pump on my car died and the car soon followed. I believe I blew a gasket and I’m going to try to fix it myself. Can anyone give me some advice on this? Also, where is a good site to find more information on car repair?
I’m presuming you blew a head gasket from the info provided. The only effective fix is to replace it. Note that removing and replacing a cylinder head is less than trivial. It’s not beyond the abilities of the shadetree mechanic but doing it wrong can cause disasters like bent valves depending on the engine type. At the very least you’ll need a torque wrench to properly install the bolts to equal tightness and may need more specialized tools. You can often rent some of the specialized tools you can’t justify buying.
Since you have to go to a fair amount of trouble anyway you should probably take the opportunity to rebuild the head if it has a lot of miles on it. Even if you don’t it’s a good idea to have the head planed so that it makes perfect seal. It may have been completely flat when it was built but likely isn’t so now.
Let us know what kind of car you have and I’m sure you’ll you’ll get some more info.
Gotta have a make, model and motor on the vehicle to start. Water pumps are usually not a big deal to replace but sometimes…aaaargh, they can be a pain in the ass.
Depends on what kind of car and much more importantly, what kind of gasket?
If it wasn’t a gasket related to the water pump, I’m guessing you blew the head gasket? If so, what’s the car really worth to you?
I had a head gasket failure a couple years back on a '93 Ford Taurus and wound up spending somewhere around $2,000. The gasket itself is $85. The rest is labor and a bejillion other things that were clobbered as collateral damage. As it was explained to me by a couple different shops when I was getting estimates, when the gasket breaches and coolant enters the combustion chamber, a big glob of steam results, and the pressure of that going bak into the cooling system pops anything that was about to die. In my case, it blew the top tank off the radiator and squirted the water pump gasket out of place. Then came the “As long as we have the engine torn apart…” items. The spark plugs were taken out when the machine shop magnafluxed the head to make sure it wasn’t cracked. Why put the old ones back in?
If you’re looking for info on fixing a blown head gasket and don’t already know for sure what’s wrong with the car, this really isn’t a do-it-yourself venture.
You are talking about the water pump right…not the heads, sorry Padeye not trying to dismiss you’re advice. Just trying to diagnose the situation.
Here’s a link to an excellent automotive site. Click the “forums” link to get to the Q&A page.
I was making a guess and said so but a blown head gasket is very probable following a water pump failure. He said the water pump died and the car followed. I took this to mean a blown gasket in addition to the failed water pump.
Get a Chiltons manual for your make, model and year. It will help a lot.
Haynes Automobile Repair Manuals are available for most cars.
If you’ve never done a tear down, even for something like a water pump, they are invaluable.
You can get them at most auto parts stores.
They aren’t very expensive.
Each book is based on a complete teardown. It may not be your exact engine but usually its close
and a damned site better than nothing.And it has pictures.
Good luck
Thanks for the advice so far guys. The first reply was in less then a minute (wow!).
I have a 95 Dodge Stratus with 70k miles. I’m not sure about the engine but I think it was 2.4 liter. I’ll have to wait until it’s light outside to double check. You were right Padeyep. I believe I blew the head gasket because the car wouldn’t start anymore. When I try to start it, it’ll crank but not turn over. Also, the night before it died, it was making this clink-clink noise, like the sound of metal rubbing against metal (I hope I’m describing this right).
I seem to remember a friend with the same problem. My memory is vague but I think I take the head out and take it to a machine shop. They can pressurized it (not sure what this means) and might even be able to tell me what settings for touque wrench and whatnot. I believe there are also gasket kits that I can buy. So I know what to do generally, but I don’t have any specific details. That’s why I’m coming to the great people here on this board. 
The cost to repair my car would be $1500 because of labor. I will also need to replace the water pump but first things first. Since I don’t have that money I figure I’ll try to fix it myself. Otherwise, it’ll just sit there until it gets towed away. I have nothing to lose this way (unless I get it to run and it dies in the middle of nowhere). I’m just not sure how to go about getting started.
I did a little search on this problem and it seems like it’s very common with the Dodge Stratus. Granted, my water pump broke first which caused my engine to overheat but still, water pumps shouldn’t break so quickly and easily.
The first thing to do is to be CERTAIN about its needing a head gasket. There are lots of different possible reasons for a car not to start. A head gasket problem that will prevent starting almost always shows other very noticeable symptoms while the car is still running.
Head gasket replacement is not to be undertaken lightly. It’s not a wise thing to do unless there’s no doubt that it’s necessary.
Exactly what symptoms did you experience prior to the no-start? Do we know for certain that there is a problem with the water pump? If so, how?
Is there any water in the oil? Check the dipstick, if the oil is brownish (muddy looking) is there water or (rust) on the side of the head? If so, then you probably do have a head gasket blown. Good guess Padeye
I didn’t want to go there…wishful thinking huh? I had a nice '83 Olds Cutlass w/ 307cu" 4bbl really sharp car. Damned water pump went out in the middle of nowhere Texas.
Had the wife and kids w/ me after midnight etc…
Wound up w/ a cracked head on top of the blown gasket. Damned that hurt…I tried to bring her in easy too. Stopped every few minutes at every chance for water…didn’t happen.
Anyway, I drained all the oily/water outta the block and rinsed it out w/ diesel. Then poured some liquid glass in her and let it get hot. Sealed the gasket and the crack for several months. Of course I had to do the heads eventually, but I got through my last semester of college driving that Olds w/ a cracked head.
cletus, no offense intended, but based on your last post it sounds like you may not be very comfortable working around inside an engine and doing a head job yourself may be beyond your personal abilities.
Like someone said, check your dipstick and see if there is coolant in the oil. If there is that is a pretty good indication that you blew a head gasket.
Though, As Gary T said, a head job is NOT something to take lightly and you should count on your car being out of commission for at least 3 days or so while the head gets planed and what not.
My water pump died about a month ago. I noticed the problem when I saw a puddle of coolant under my car. At the time, I didn’t have the money to have it repaired. I ended up putting coolant directly into the radiator every other day as a temporary solution. Looks like I was relying to much on this though.
I just went and checked the dipstick and it does look a little muddy. I’m going to check the head tomorrow for water or rust.
I’ve been trying to find some instructions for this type of job. Does anyone have any links or maybe know how to do this? Your right Stinkpalm, I don’t know much about cars. I’m willing to try to fix this myself though because I don’t have many other options. Time is not a problem for me either. Any help would be greatly appreciated and of course, thanks to you guys that have already posted a reply.
I notice t-keela and Stinkpalm have just passed the 1000 post mark. CONGRATULATIONS ON 1000TH POST!
I’ll second justwanno’s recommendation of a Haynes Manual for your make & model. While not perfect, they’re a hell of a lot better than nothing and give instructions on most repairs up to and including rebuilding the engine.
Around here, most auto parts stores sell them for around $14.
Really depends on a lot. I’m assuming the engine is an overhead cam which can complicate things a bit. Overheating can be a result of a failed water pump. Depending on how hot things got you could have a problem. Also could be a problem if you have (probably) aluminum heads. Checking for water in the oil is only an indication of the blown piece of gasket between the water jacket and an oil gallery. There is also the possibility of a blowout between the combustion on any cylinder and either oil gallery or water jacket. Check the compression and look for an imbalance indicating which head is questionable. Look for water in the oil. If you can get it to a shop, they can check for combustion gases in the cooling system. Also remember that ethylene glycol (anti-freeze) attacks babbit which is the material your bearings are made of. A thorough oil change will also be needed. If you don’t have an overhead cam engine, you can fix this. Disconnect the battery (negative cable first) then start wrenching. Throttle body first, then intake manifold, exhaust manifold(s), rocker covers, rocker arm rack, then the head(s). Have the head checked, then re-assemble in reverse order. Put each bolt/lifter/pushrod/etc into the same place it came from! Buy a rebuilders gasket set. They are marked “Felpro” but in a plain brown wrapper. Good advice from above posts on Haynes and Chiltons, but a shop manual from the manufacturer should be available and much more specific to your vehicle. Torque to specs. Find somebody in your area like me who will teach you how to do this while you do the dirty work and pay the bill. (some people like to show off by teaching)
I actually helped a freind do this exact repair on the exact same car. You should really have a garage to do it in. Or lots of driveway. It is a very parts intensive job, meaning you have to remove a lot of parts just to get the head off. Removing the intake and the exhaust manifolds were no easy chore. Have some masking tape and a marker handy to label the parts and the order in which they were removed. And a Manual for the car is necessary, we got the right one from the nearest library. I`m pretty sure we had to pull the cam off the head to get to some of the head bolts too.
We are both pretty good with cars, so it wasnt much of a stretch for us to do this. I would NOT recommend you try this at home by yourself. Try to get a mechanic to help you do it on the side at your house maybe. You will need a shit-load of different tools, some of which you havent even dreamed of yet.
You`re in for quite a project, good luck !!
In our case, the timing belt broke and bent most of the valves so the head had to be rebuilt for about 400 bucks.
I have a question MajorTom. Are these potential problems going to be apparent when I open it up? What I mean to say is, well I be able to clearly see that ‘oh, it’s the compression because the head is bent’ or whatever? Is there going to be cracks telling me which part is messed up? I’ll hate to open it up just to see what appears to be perfectly fine parts. If so, I’ll probably have to take each part out and examine them individually. I’m not sure what I would look for either. I’m assuming some type of warping from all the heat and/or cracks. Someone also mentoned having the head planed so I’ll have to look for that too. I’m pretty sure I’m going to find a lot of water in there at least. Not sure if this is significant but I just had a oil change a few days ago too.
Whuckfistle, would it be possible for you to go into more detail of what you did for me? You can email me or post it on here.
Cletus, it sounds like you have far more serious problems than a blown head gasket. That alone would not account for the metal on metal sounds you are hearing. Unfortunately it sounds like you may be in over your head trying to fix things yourself if you don’t have the experience.