well i know my water pump is going out, at first i was worried i was leaking oil then noticed the nice green tint. great! but that explains where all my antifreeze has been going. i was just wondering while i am down there is there anything else that should go ahead and be checked out while i got it torn down. hopefully the pump will last another three weeks or so cause im broke. but any suggestions? or advice from those of you that ahve done it?

also i was noticing weird fluctuations on my temp gauge today after i changed my oil. when i cam to a stop at the light my temp would get up to about 240 and when i took off it would drop to about 195 and it did it several times in a row finally it levelled out to normal operating temps. does that ahve anything to do with the water pump leaking? my antifreeze level seemed fine when i checked it

 

air in cooling system/t-stat stuck open been there done that! good luck

 

yeah i was kinda thinking thermostat issue.. i tihnk im gonna get a 180 anyway

 

the water pump bolts onto and thru the timing cover in a sort of stupid arrangement, and you need a good seal on both of those, or you'll leak coolant. edit... some people report they change wp only, and then have a leak from the timing cover. others do wp only w/no problem. so i don't know.

you can actually remove only the water pump and not strip off the top of the motor. i initially did this because i couldn't get the fan off, so i unbolted wp and lifted out wp, fan, and shroud all at once. if you wanted to be quick and dirty, you could replace wp only with little effort and ignore everything else.

or on the other hand, when i did my 01 at 125k miles, i went ahead and removed timing cover and replaced timing chain, sprockets, front seal, etc, etc, fixed plenum, etc, etc, hoses, etc, couldn't decide when to stop.

if you can, replace the short water pump bypass hose, which is buried underneath a lot of stuff. its only $10 or less.

edit again.. your temp spikes are probably caused by air pockets resulting from the leak.

pics. https://dodgeforum.com/m_735291/tm.htm

 

The water pump is whats causing the temp spike while idling, A good water pump has tight tolerances so it pumps as much water as it can. When the bearing goes out it loses its close tolerances and therefore does not pump efficiently when idling. but when you accelerate it spins it a little faster pumping the HOT fluid to the radiator. giving you that Big difference in temp from 240 to 190 or 195 whatever your thermostat is