leaky water pump...help

[chinny4290]

Did a search, and mostly found stuff ont he 6.9

Ok so here's waht happened. I look in front of the car where i parked in front of my friend's house before leaving and saw that the coolant was leaking. I added water because I opened up the radiator and didn't see anything on the surface. I started the car and then it all started leaking from the front of the engine, and I checked the belt diagrams I had on hand and saw that the water pump was above the crankshaft, so I naturally thought the water pump. The leaks aren't a flow, but it was between 1-3 drops per second to 2 seconds, so it's coming out.

I drove the car for about 30 miles when I posted an emergency call for help on MercedesShop and had a jug of coolant in hand. I had to get back to school so I can be somewhere safe, as well as my friends with me. The temp gauge didn't go one bit over 175 deg F. I assumed the car leaked overnight because when I arrived at my friend's house, when I first smelled coolant a bit. So this morning, before finding out about the leak, I drove the car for about 20 miles and no indicator of a bad cooling system showed up, no overheating, unusually high temp guage, nada. So I don't know what sup.

I do know the obvious, I need a new water pump. And anyone have any good DIY and/or a general idea as to how hard it is and how long it will take? And any other suggestions are extremely appreciated. On top of replacing the actual pump, should I do the housing as well or no?

As of now, tomorrow, I have to drive the car back home about 55 miles. Any temp fixes that people have for me? I also read somewhere, that I could have the case where my car will only leak when the T-stat is not open. Could this be why my car hasn't overheated yet?

[Bandolero]

The waterpump on a 6 cylinder is a Pain in the arse to repair!!!!!!!!!
There is no cutout on the bottom pulley for the bottom bolt on the waterpump, so the bottom pulley has to be removed.
If your car runs cool, ie. under 85' C, you could try driving with the radiator cap loosened off. This way it will not build up pressure.
HOWEVER, you must not let the temp go above 95C as the water WILL boil at 100C!!!!

[Markz116]

Sorry for off-topic, but chinny, where in New Jersey are you?

[chinny4290]

saddle river, Bergen County.

[s class]

PLease check our on-line library here for the proper procedure.  I'm nor sure if it is necessary to remove the damper - the library will tell you. 

You can have a look here :

Link

Some while back I attended to a lot of issues on the front oy my M110 including a new water pump. 

The M110 has a reputation for being troublesome with regards to water pump replacement.  A lot of people report leaks at the gasket between the pump base and pump housing.  I had no such problems.  My advice is to be careful not to overtorque the pump mounting bolts, which is easy to do as its a light torque - the library will give the value.  Also be thorough in preparing the gasket surfaces properly. 

Good luck. 

[Papalangi]

Check out www.mercedesshop.com for parts, Phil has been very good to me.  I'm know as 250coupe on the vintage forum.

Michael

[oscar]

Link

I forgot how good that thread was.  What about the very short hose? I've just bought new hoses and thermostat but no new water pump and I couldn't find the short hose online.  Is it available or is it custom cut from a larger length? 

[chinny4290]

Ok guys, need some more help. The car made it back to my house safely though something's really worrying me. when i went to refill the coolant, i ran the engine with the radiator cap off to make sure the coolant level was proper throughout the system.

One thing though that made my hair jump (btw i used cheap store brand clear green coolant because all i needed to do was get the car home) was that once the coolant started flowing, it immediately turned dark and cloudy and the immediate thing i thought was ohhhh shit...head gasket.

It didn't smell at all like oil, but more so a dead animal.

THere was no smoke or steam whatsoever from the exhaust, not even a hint of coolant.

There was no drop in performance/acceleration at all.

The car never went a hair over 175 degrees F, which is 3/8ths on the gauge (for reference, pic below and temperature reading was wayy wayy wayyy before this started)



The only time I could think the car ever got hot was after being driven and parked. That's the only time I've ever seen the temp go near 250 degrees. Even prior to all of this when there was no leak, it would get that hot but jump immediately down when the water pump and the viscous fan got running.

But I guess the leak and climb in temp did that?

So does this mean my head gasket failure is near? Pleeeeeasssseeee god noooooo 

Edit: Come to think of it, there would be only steam coming from the exhaust when the car was either cold, or idling after sitting for a couple hours at a parking lot. But I thought that was normal. Just to try and help you visualize this steam, it was like, this much:

[koan]

I wouldn't panic yet, I doubt your minor over heating would cause head gasket problems. Indications of blown head gaskets are bubbles in the radiator and condensation clouds and/or drips from the exhaust (apart from normal cold weather condensation).

Don't know why the coolant went cloudy unless it was just mixing with dirty stuff in there. The dead animal smell might indicate it needs some flushing.

I'd drain what ever is in there, fill it with straight water and run it up to temperature to get the thermostat open and water circulating. Allow the engine to cool for a couple of hours and then drain the water.

Repeat a couple of times more, the idea is to get out whatever is in there, and then fill with cheap coolant and drive as normal, investigate your water pump leak further.

Don't put water into a hot engine, allow it to cool.

You might want to consider using a radiator cleaner during the flushing but the danger there is that if there is scale in the block it might end up clogging the radiator. My trick to catch the scale is to remove the top radiator hose and put the foot of a nylon stocking into the top of the radiator and replace the hose, clamping the stocking to the radiator with the hose and clamp.

koan

[chinny4290]

I wouldn't panic yet, I doubt your minor over heating would cause head gasket problems. Indications of blown head gaskets are bubbles in the radiator and condensation clouds and/or drips from the exhaust (apart from normal cold weather condensation).

Don't know why the coolant went cloudy unless it was just mixing with dirty stuff in there. The dead animal smell might indicate it needs some flushing.

I'd drain what ever is in there, fill it with straight water and run it up to temperature to get the thermostat open and water circulating. Allow the engine to cool for a couple of hours and then drain the water.

Repeat a couple of times more, the idea is to get out whatever is in there, and then fill with cheap coolant and drive as normal, investigate your water pump leak further.

Don't put water into a hot engine, allow it to cool.

You might want to consider using a radiator cleaner during the flushing but the danger there is that if there is scale in the block it might end up clogging the radiator. My trick to catch the scale is to remove the top radiator hose and put the foot of a nylon stocking into the top of the radiator and replace the hose, clamping the stocking to the radiator with the hose and clamp.

koan

Ok, some relief 

As for the condensation clouds..as I aforementioned, they occur only when idle though, even in hot weather....What could that mean?

[s class]

The nylon stocking trick is OK, but just be careful because if there is crud in the system, it will quickly blind up (block) the stocking and seriously impede your water flow and lead to an overheat. 

Oscar, that short stubby hose is available from MB, but its sold by the metre and is pretty expensive.  I used suitable spares shop hose stock. 

[koan]

As for the condensation clouds..as I aforementioned, they occur only when idle though, even in hot weather....What could that mean?

That's a bit odd, the condensation clouds depend on climatic conditions. When in traffic and warmed up have a look around, if you are the only car with white clouds something's not right.

If the hose mentioned is 42 mm ID it now comes in 75mm lengths with p/n N 900271 042023.

As far as the stocking filter goes, if it was pulled tight across the radiator inlet it could clog very quickly but I stuff about 300mm or more in to the top tank of the radiator which gives much greater filter area. I've collected large amount of scale and fine grit from various cars this way over the years and never had a problem. I should have been more descriptive.

koan

[Andreas]

Hi Guys,

I have just changed the water pump on my car. If all the bolts and nuts come off ok without breaking the job is not to hard, but you do have to take off the harmonic balancer and all this does take some time. In my situation I had a really nice run of bolts and nuts breaking just to make me feel really good....(not)!!!!!!

I would stronlgy recomend that you buy six new harmonic balancer bolts. I would not reuse the old ones as if you have managed to get them off without rounding them i doubt you will get them of a second time without rouning them off. I had to get one rounded one out and dont want to have to do that again. I think that one bolt almost cost me a freindship (Sorry Bandolero.)

Now with regards to temerature...I had mine at that temp or a little higher and no problem at all with the head gasket. I think you will be fine unles you had it really close to 250. However with draining and filling the radiator you are highly likely to encounter an airlock or two stopping the water from moving in the cooling system. I found a couple of short high revs fixed the problem in my case. But in my case when the temp got to 175 i had an airlock every time (I flushed my systyem 6 times because i was a little forgetfull ).

If you got time.... do it yourself, or if you got lots of money get a mechanic to do it for you. If you follow the instructions in the library you should be ok. This was my first attept at fixing a car and the cooling system is now ok....now i have to do the brakes......

ps make sure you have a breaker bar (or are built like Arnold Schwarzanegger)
, and a good 6mm alan bolt for the nuts on the harmonic balancer. They are the two tools you cant do with out in this job.

Cheers
Andreas

[WGB]

Congratulations on the DIY.

It can be very satisfying when it goes right.

Bill

[Andreas]

WGB,

It sure is satisfying doing the work oneself. Also the understanding how the car works makes you feel less worried bout something breaking.....and if it breaks down somewhere unexpected....like the outback at least you have a chance of getting it going again.