Water pump repacement on Plusar NX SE CD18DE

[SuperTech]

I seem to have a leaking water pump on our 88 Pulsar NX SE CA18DE engine. Nissan quoted 5.3hrs @ $85 us . Yikes . Factory manual made it seem not so tough but they left out a LOT of stuff !I have the outer belts off , the crankshaft pully and the 5 bolts holding the lower timing belt cover . The water pump pulley of off. The two bolts holding a bracket for the power steering pump and are two of the 5 holding the water pump are also off.The radiator is drained but I can't seem to find the plug on the engine to drain the coolant . The manual mentions it, but the picture given does not help me . How hard is it to find a plug ...lol. ??The bottom timming belt cover is loose but will not disengage from the upper timing belt cover . Am I missing something , or does it also have to come out . Any other suggestions ? I checked the manual re timing belt removal /replacement and it seems inane to have to do all that to replace a waterpump.
Modified by SuperTech at 12:43 PM 12/19/2004

[RMiller]

I can't believe they charge that much, should be about a 2 hour job for the average joe. I forgot what side the coolant drain plug is on, but I think it comes off with a 1/2 inch drive (use an extension). I didn't bother draining coolant from the engine. I just put a towel over the timing belt, drained the radiator completely, and took off the pump. I had some leakage, but not that much, and what did leak went right on the towel.

The timing covers should easily separate.

Good luck!

[SuperTech]

>>The timing covers should easily separate. hmmmm Then what am I missing? I can pull the bottom of the cover out as much as 2 inches, but it does not want to seperate from the top cover. I even removed two bolts that on the top cover in case there was a tab from the bottom cover underneath. It is amazingly tough to work on this engine in such a tight engine bay.Nissan quoted me the book rate which was 2.9 hrs and 5.3hrs for the two engines . I assumed the 5.3 refers to our 1.8L engine as the 1.6 looks to be a lot simpler water pump wise . I'll go and wiggle the @#$^ cover once more.

thanks for such a quick reply.

[biosehnsucht]

The top cover must come off first.

You'll need allen wrenches / sockets, I believe 5mm but I could be wrong.

The coolant drain plug should be towards the flywheel (back) end of the engine on the exhaust side, if its in the same place as RWD. I believe it goes exactly opposite of the heater hookup on the block, FWD might have reversed these for all I know but I doubt it as that would put the heater hose on the wrong side.

[RMiller]

Ahh yeah, the allen bolts. You'll be removing many bolts to get the covers off. It's a little ridiculous.

[float_6969]

Top cover has to come off to get the bottom cover off.

The drain plug is underneath the exhaust on the side of the block. I personally wouldn't mess with it. I've always used the towel method with no problems.