paul p (chi-town)
08-18-2010, 11:04 PM
So my rad fan decided to practice self immolation a few weeks back, taking out a few coolant bits ............ in Wisconsin Dells .
A smarter pablo would have had the tools with to do an impromtu clutched fan delete at the 1st sign of distress. By this time it was a little too late. Closest parts source was 60 miles away in Mosc, uh Madison WI. Fortunately so were some in laws AND most cheeseheads (like the guy @ gas station) are reasonable souls. Instead of a rediculous tow bill we grabbed a rental car, hung out with the niece/nephew and slept on it. Replaced enough to get 'Rolf' running and holding coolant then tried limping him home. After a few miles of babying it and the harsh memory of driving a rental Corolla, he was allowed to find his natural pace.
*grin*
Try all that shite in the chi-town metro and see where it gets ya.
Obviously something was wonky and when i got the belts off later, one could feel quite a bit of play in teh water pump.
That's a cast metal impeller 'upgrade' failing at bout 80K miles.
I debated getting the Stewart hi flo, but the current OEM pump impeller looks and 'tings' like metal and half the price. So in it went. Now we find that a 190K mile aux rad fan is a little grouchy.
*rolls eyes*
On to the tips......
Two capital letters, and a word: PB Blaster.
If not here, u got:
http://www.understeer.com/waterpump.shtml
http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/techarticles/E36-Water-Pump/E36-water-pump.htm
Fan wrench tool? HAH! A good long monkey wrench (or properly sized open end) and a big long/fat/rectangular shaft screw driver is all you need. Hold down the water pump pulley with the driver, wedged between bolts/shaft of the pulley and give the wrench a good tug on that fan nut (remember counterintuitive CLOCKWISE .... no problem. Off comes the fan clutch.
Get the ~2inch M6 bolts to ease the water pump out the block. Take the time to get them, they come in handy later.*
Putting in the new pump, at least one of the studs will catch, if the 1st one doesn't, you have 3 more. EASE the nuts on on alternating corners a turn or two, and it's in.
*Use one of these M6 bolts to locate the pulley on the pump, THEN start threading in 3 of the stock shortie bolts. After this, pull the 'special tool' long bolt and replace with the 4th stock one. This one step saves more than half the PITA of the limited space doing the job w/o pulling the thermostat cover and radiator.
Take the usual 2-3 heat cycles to bleed an m50 engine.
*frowns*
Hang up & Drive!
94 BMW 530iT&A 155K, ‘Helga’ ( Shleppen Schnell, Boat bus *splash* )
92 BMW 325i 188K, ‘Rolf’ ( 3rd water pump and front LCAs *woot* )
93 Datsun NX2000 190K ‘Carla’ ( Parting out *shakes head* )
85 Toyo MR2 140K ‘Jerry’ ( Showcar/track toy, killer mpg, needs an exhaust *sad* )
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
- Hunter S. Thompson
A smarter pablo would have had the tools with to do an impromtu clutched fan delete at the 1st sign of distress. By this time it was a little too late. Closest parts source was 60 miles away in Mosc, uh Madison WI. Fortunately so were some in laws AND most cheeseheads (like the guy @ gas station) are reasonable souls. Instead of a rediculous tow bill we grabbed a rental car, hung out with the niece/nephew and slept on it. Replaced enough to get 'Rolf' running and holding coolant then tried limping him home. After a few miles of babying it and the harsh memory of driving a rental Corolla, he was allowed to find his natural pace.
*grin*
Try all that shite in the chi-town metro and see where it gets ya.
Obviously something was wonky and when i got the belts off later, one could feel quite a bit of play in teh water pump.
That's a cast metal impeller 'upgrade' failing at bout 80K miles.
I debated getting the Stewart hi flo, but the current OEM pump impeller looks and 'tings' like metal and half the price. So in it went. Now we find that a 190K mile aux rad fan is a little grouchy.
*rolls eyes*
On to the tips......
Two capital letters, and a word: PB Blaster.
If not here, u got:
http://www.understeer.com/waterpump.shtml
http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/techarticles/E36-Water-Pump/E36-water-pump.htm
Fan wrench tool? HAH! A good long monkey wrench (or properly sized open end) and a big long/fat/rectangular shaft screw driver is all you need. Hold down the water pump pulley with the driver, wedged between bolts/shaft of the pulley and give the wrench a good tug on that fan nut (remember counterintuitive CLOCKWISE .... no problem. Off comes the fan clutch.
Get the ~2inch M6 bolts to ease the water pump out the block. Take the time to get them, they come in handy later.*
Putting in the new pump, at least one of the studs will catch, if the 1st one doesn't, you have 3 more. EASE the nuts on on alternating corners a turn or two, and it's in.
*Use one of these M6 bolts to locate the pulley on the pump, THEN start threading in 3 of the stock shortie bolts. After this, pull the 'special tool' long bolt and replace with the 4th stock one. This one step saves more than half the PITA of the limited space doing the job w/o pulling the thermostat cover and radiator.
Take the usual 2-3 heat cycles to bleed an m50 engine.
*frowns*
Hang up & Drive!
94 BMW 530iT&A 155K, ‘Helga’ ( Shleppen Schnell, Boat bus *splash* )
92 BMW 325i 188K, ‘Rolf’ ( 3rd water pump and front LCAs *woot* )
93 Datsun NX2000 190K ‘Carla’ ( Parting out *shakes head* )
85 Toyo MR2 140K ‘Jerry’ ( Showcar/track toy, killer mpg, needs an exhaust *sad* )
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
- Hunter S. Thompson