I put a new water pump on my truck a week ago or so. Around one of the bolts on the bottom of the pump, it will seep coolant. Not enough to drip or change the coolant level, just enough to annoy me. The coolant is coming through the bolt hole and getting the bottom of the bolt wet, basically. Think I can take that bolt out, put silicone in the bolt hole, screw the bolt back in and let it sit awhile before cranking and stop the seeping? Or am I better off leaving it alone? Had the same thing happen to a t-stat housing bolt once and fixed it like I mentioned doing above.

Guess that's what I get for trying to be neat and use the silicone sparingly when originally installing.

 

My bet is the timing cover gasket got damaged. Re torque the bolts and hope for the best.

 

Try some pipe dope or thread sealant on the theads for that bolt, don't mess with silicon. I think there are 2 or 4 bolts that go into the water-jacket.

 

4. I just did it last night

 

Just a thought, when I replaced my water pump the o-ring on the inlet tube had a very small cut. Would leak where the tube goes in the water pump and run down and around the pump onto a lower bolt. The leak was so small you couldn't see it, just the result of the lower bolt getting wet. I didn't find the leak until I put a paper towel around the inlet tube and had to wait about 20 minutes of engine running to get the towel wet enough to know it started there.

 

Pipe dope like the plumbing stuff?

 

Yup, good luck with that though.

 

Err...so what's that mean? Don't recommend it? Or are you still thinking timing chain gasket?

Thinking about putting some teflon tape on there with some silicone on the bolt too (but not on the teflon tape). Timing chain gasket I replaced a couple of years ago with a fel pro gasket, hoping its not the issue. Either way, I'll let yall know how it turns out.

 

One other thing before I try this, just how much coolant will come out that one bolt hole when I remove the bolt (assuming no gaskets are damaged)? All the coolant above the water pump, I guess?

 

I think he means that the leak is more than likely the timing cover gasket....