little newbish question

[xxrealmsxx]

It's winter here in georgia and i haven't been running the gst alot, i kinda didnt flush the radiator *doh* but i ran the car yesterday and first the exhaust was a little bit whitish which got me kind of worried about a blown head gasket, but thats fine now, now however there was anti freeze on the ground and now water drips from my water pump. At least i think it does. Basically im asking, could this just be a cracked radiator? or am i going to go all the way and end up having a busted water pump?

if so how much does the best radiator out there cost?
or how much does it cost for a new waterpump and how hard is an install.
im not a mechanic yet sry .

 

[gsx_tuner]

There is a grove in front of the waterpump. Whenever it starts to leak water out of it, that means the waterpump is bad. If it is not leaking from the grove, and maybe behind it, the gasket probably broke due to contaminations while putting it on. You need to make sure when you replace it that you get everything off of the surface. Make sure it as smooth as a baby's behind. If there is any silcone or old gasket, it will eventually if not immediately break the seal. This is also a good time to replace the timing belt. Also, you might want to do the smart thing and replace your tensionor and idler pulley as well along with your automatic tensionor. Don't say I didn't warn you if you didn't!

 

[xxrealmsxx]

thanks for the help and yes i'm following your advice, while im at it i want to throw on a new headgasket, i bought the car at 60k miles and assumed the maintenance was done because it was from a dealer used, but guess ford dealerships suck. where can i get the tensioner, idler pulley, and automatic tensioner? as well as a good timing belt kit. I also found a waterpump on ebay with 5k miles on it for like $20 i may buy. Any advice on where to buy the stuff? think i might try to do this all with some friends help instead of paying for labor since i cant afford it.

 

[Defiant]

Originally posted by xxrealmsxx
thanks for the help and yes i'm following your advice, while im at it i want to throw on a new headgasket,

If there's nothing wrong with it, don't mess with it.

 

[92awddsm]

If you dont know how to change a waterpump, you definately dont want to try a head gasket. Remember, If it aint broke, dont fix it, you will probably create more problems. Dont buy a used waterpump either, spend the $ on a new part. And if you are looking to buy a cheap used water pump, why are you interseted in the price of "the best radiator"? It will be 4-5 times more expensive that a new oe water pump. Sorry, im not flaming but y worry about the best parts when you dont and probably wont need them.

 

[gsx_tuner]

Yeah, don't use a used waterpump, no matter how many miles are on it. You can get them relatively cheap. There are some things I would replace wether they aren't giving you any trouble or not, and that would be the belts, (timing and balance shaft) and the pulleys (idler and tensionor) and the automatic tensionor. I bought all these in a kit (minus the tensionor) at O'Reily's. As for your headgasket, I would listen to what that guy said earlier, and adhear to the phrase, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" You could run into many complications messing around with taking the head off. Don't do it unless you have to. You might want to go ahead and do a compression check, just to see that you have good compression in each cylinder. But other than that, leave it alone. Granted, you do have to take the timing belt back off when you do the head, so go ahead and check your compression. Also, a lot of people I have seen leave thier timing belt cover and cam gear cover off. I knew a guy that drove over a stick, and it lodged somewhere in the engine, and broke his belt, and bent every single valve in the head. So, leave yours on. Am I rambling... sorry... I have nothing else to do..

 

[xxrealmsxx]

Looked into it just going to bring my car into a shop and get them to do the 70k mi maintenance and whatever seems reasonable to be done. No use adding to the unreliability of my car by tinkering with it. Thnx for the input tho i appreciate it.