i have 1998 dodge ram 1500 4x4 318 5.2 and about to tackle the water pump . my question is do you have to unbolt the a/c compressor and alt. dont you have to just unbolt the fan and take the fan shroud off and there is the water pump.i watched an youtube viedo of a dodge 318 water pump swapout and he didnt unbolt the a/c compressor or the alt. any thoughts before i start this would be great.

 

You don't have to, but, it does make the job easier.

Something else to consider.... while you are right there, resealing the timing cover, and replacing timing chain and gears as well really wouldn't be a bad plan. (the bracket and such WOULD have to come off for that exercise.) You are going to be distrubing that gasket, and right where the coolant passages seal too...... You would not be the frist to just do a water pump, and a week later end up doing the timing cover......

 

Unbolt them as it doesn't take five minutes and you will be able to get to the water pump a lot easier. Also and the MOST important is you can change that small piece of hose that goes into the intake that is located behind the water pump. In short, it makes life a lot easier.

 

The first time I did it, I didn't remove the A/C compressor. It wasn't a big deal, but it is impossible to replace the bypass hose. If you are going through the hassle of replacing the water pump, replacing the bypass hose wouldn't be a bad idea considering how easy it is to unbold the compressor. Just don't unbolt the compressor hoses or you will regret it

The second time I did it, I unbolted the ac compressor and moved it out of the way and it made things a lot easier to get to things and a lot easier to scrape the old gasket off.

 

+2 these guys know what they are saying

 

thanks for the info .im pretty sure i can do the water pump but timing chain i have no idea how to do it from reading your suppose put the engine on TDC then pull the balancer then from there how do you get the gears off and chain and how do you install new gears and chain? and finaly how do you put the balancer back on? oh and finaly finaly theres alot of talk about a plenum . how do you know if yours is blown?

thanks

 

Getting the balancer off is the only hard part. Need a puller for that. (and not the jaw puller...... don't go there.) You can probably rent the correct puller from the parts store for pretty cheap.

Once I got down to my gears, I just lined up the dots on the gears, pulled the cam bolt out, and the gears slid right off. Chain came with 'em. No problem at all. Put the new ones back on in the same way. Line up the dots, stick 'em on, crank first, and then slide them back onto the cam. (with the chain already installed on the gears.) To put the dampener back on, I just pushed it on by hand as far as I could, and then used the huge *** crank bolt to tighten it down the rest of the way.

Most time consuming part of the job was cleaning up the gasket surfaces. I used sealer only around the coolant passages on the block/cover gasket, and the periphery of the water pump.

 

its not that bad, but you need a puller and an impact wrench (or engine brake).
as said, line up dots, remove, do not turn engine, replace.
there's probably some youtube videos.

here's some pics.
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...ater-pump.html

 

thanks for the info im working a little at a time. not in a hurry and dont want to rush it i got this far so far. i noticed alot of rusty water at one of the engine ports i think thats wear the leak was coming from looks like im going all the way to the chain

 

when your already that far in and not in a rush, it makes sense to go all the way. its only another half dozen bolts and about another $50.

sure as hell if you don't do it, your timing cover will spring a coolant leak thanks to dodge's engineers saying - hey, lets save 50 cents on the water pump by using the timing cover for a water channel. nobody will ever notice until long after we cash our bonus check and disappear...