Review on Gates Water Pump 42097 by Tony Guernsey

My old water pump was leaking out of the drain hole so I ordered this from Gates. The hardest part was getting the old pump out as the shop that installed the old pump used about 10 pounds of RTV. Be sure to cut off the old RTV and have a pry bar handy (note the guide pins on the timing cover) if yours does too. As another reviewer mentioned, you also need to remove the two power steering pump bolts to access the bottom bolt on the pump. Also, be sure to flush the system completely before removing the old pump. This will remove all old coolant and deposits from your cooling system. Leaving these things inside can cause your new water pump to fail prematurely. I drained the radiator, then refilled the chemical flush bottle and refilled the system with distilled water. I drove like that for a day, then I emptied the radiator again (of course making sure that it had cooled down completely). I only filled it with distilled water and drove it again for about 20 minutes, drained it again as soon as it cooled down. Draining the radiator only removes the coolant in the radiator and you want to make sure you remove any residue from the cylinder block and water pump. I did this by disconnecting the upper and lower radiator hoses and putting a garden hose in the hoses with a spray bottle and flushing until clean water came out of the other disconnected hose. Disconnect the bottom hose from the water pump as it will probably be easier to get to this clamp if the belt and pulleys are out of the way. It was too difficult to get to the clamp on the upper radiator hose, so I disconnected the upper hose from the thermostat housing and hooked up an old radiator hose I had in the garage and used it to flush the block. Installation was easy. I didn't use the included spacer and used the metal Fel-Pro instead (the included spacer felt more brittle when I compared the two side-by-side). I haven't used RTV on a pad either after checking out the Fel-Pro website. They claim that RTV is not required for most of their pads and can damage the pad over time if used. I still used the RTV on the four long bolts before installing them as they go into the water jacket. Be sure to tighten the long bolts to 25 lb-ft and the short bolts to 16 lb-ft to ensure a proper gasket seal. I did it a week ago, so far so good. The car drives well, cool, no leaks.