water pump

[dieseldan]

I have recently replaced my water pump along with all the belts.  I attempted to just remove the pump itself but all the 6mm bolts decided to break off, even the two which hold the thermostat housing.  Because of this, I had to remove the entire pump body and replace it.  Dealer reman pumps come this way.  This was a tremendous job requiring the removal of the A/C and the injection pump.  To prevent this from happening again, I removed the steel bolts from the new pump and replaced them with 316 stainless steel 6mm X 20mm.  These were about $7 and also fit the thermostat housing.  Cheap insurance for the future.  The water pump and thermostat on these cars are mounted rather low and will collect road salt at both ends since the bolts are not in blind holes.  A good source for all types of metric bolts is Mcmaster.com; these are part number 93635A212.  I try to replace all non-hardered fasteners with stainless.  
Daniel

[fatmobile]

A little anti-sieze is a good idea too.

[chrissev]

there's a trick to getting the water pump bolts out without breaking them.  What you do is you tighten them a bit first, then loosen till you feel a lot of resistance, then tighten a bit more.  Eventually they will come out if you move them back and forth like that.  Also putting a bit of heat to them helps (with a torch on low flame).

[mpg]

hahaha! I think those 2 thermostat housing bolts break on everyone's first attempt at removing them! I know they broke on me on my first thermostat replacement (which ended up being my first waterpump R&R, too!!).