Well as predicted that ended up being a bit more of a rigmarole than I'd hoped!
Finding the original water pump took all of 30 seconds as it was exactly where I thought it was. Here's the difference between the aftermarket one which came with my first Estelle (fitted in the photo) and the original.
The impeller on the original is about twice the depth of that on the one currently on the car, though the pitch is slightly different - and it never caused me any issues on the previous car - just having eliminated the original water pump as the cause of the problems, I would have preferred to have the original put back. It looks better.
First thing I did of course was to pull what on any normal front engined car would be the bottom radiator hose (the one to the left of the water pump). Glad to report that the coolant that emerged was crystal clear blue coolant without any sediment, contamination etc. Far cry from what I drained out of the Saab when I first got it (which looked like slightly watered down red oxide primer). Likewise when I flushed everything through there was no signs of any gunk to emerge from the system. I think the flow is decent enough given the head you're pushing against to flow through the radiator and heater matrix and the length of the pipework involved. Even when I reverse flushed it there was absolutely no signs of any crud emerging from the system - tending to suggest I'd done a decent job of it last time.
Next up, water pump swap...
I've discovered however that after a couple of years a fine smear of blue gasket sealant apparently can form a ridiculously strong bond! The nuts came off perfectly, but the pump is well and truly stuck to the housing. After arguing with it for half an hour I decided to just leave that well alone for now and get on with what I set out to do.
...At which point the hose clip immediately to the right of the water pump decided it had had enough of life and decided to fall to bits. Cue expletives. If you hear Estelle owners talking about "that pipe" it is usually referring to that tiny little bridge between the water pump and the ridged line that disappears off around the head, by the tappet cover to the heater hoses. Simple reason? Because it's an absolute swine to remove or fit unless you want to totally disconnect all the heater hoses at the other end and detach the aforementioned hard coolant line. Even then it's a royal faff as the pipe will only fit between the cylinder head and the distributor if you've got the hose clip at *exactly* the right angle. I also remembered from last time I did this (when I replaced that bit of hose and the bypass pipe) that everything seemed very well stuck to the solid coolant lines, and between that and the heater hoses being in good condition, I'd decided to leave that well alone.
The upshot of this was that I spent about 20 minutes getting a new hose clip onto that tiny bit of pipe and reattaching it. I *still* dislike that two inch long bit of pipe as much as I did when I encountered it on my first Estelle.
Anyhow, having sorted that nonsense out, back onto doing what I actually set out to in the first place. Thankfully I knew that the last person to have the stat housing apart was me, and sure enough it came apart without any protest. The stat which came out isn't the worst looking one I've seen by a long shot, though being Mahle branded has obviously been changed at some point.
It did however reveal one glitch with my new one - that it hadn't come with a paper gasket. I did my best to salvage this from the one on the car and got *most* of it off intact...but for now just had to be a bit more generous with the sealant than I normally would like. I'll get a new gasket ordered in due course (they're all of £1.69) so that can be tidied up to my satisfaction.
Then I just had to refill the system, bleed it...and wait for the thing to warm up. There's 11 litres of coolant in this system...It takes *forever* to fully heat up when all you can do is sit there running the engine at a fast idle! While I was waiting, I put the air cleaner back together and snapped a photo of the data card so Jim can save it for future reference. These were the days, when the manufacturer provided this all for you in one place actually on the car!
If in future you wish to check such things, the Crypton engine analyser I've got here has the ability to read the dwell angle with the engine running and has a decent timing light attached that knocks the socks off the one I bought a few years back.
Note the front tyre pressures. Seriously...Don't try putting any more in there unless you want to be bouncing around the road like a circus clown car...The garage stuck 35psi in when they put the tyres on despite my specific instructions, and the effect on the handling was...shall we just call it "somewhat alarming" as I discovered when I was halfway around the Mounthooly Roundabout back in Aberdeen on the slightly damp road on the way back from having the tyres fitted. That wonderful moment when you turn the steering wheel yet it has absolutely no effect on the direction of travel whatsoever...Returning the pressures to what they should be both stopped the comedy bouncing and restored grip levels to where they should be.
At this point I think I'm at the point where I just need to call Two Wrestlers up and get it booked in for a test and cross my fingers that it behaves on the way over there! If it doesn't, I think we need to put our heads together and see what theories we can come up with Jim!
The only one which worries me is the possibility of a slipped cylinder liner (played that game on enough Gardners...) which would give similar symptoms I guess to a head gasket issue, though that's really unusual unless they've been disturbed while the head was off - and I was very careful not to rotate the engine while the head was off for that very reason. Not unfixable, but a royal pain if it were the case, however unlikely it may be.
She behaved perfectly this evening though, despite sitting for a good 45 minutes at 2500rpm...so fingers crossed! Just had kind of hoped to see an obviously collapsed or clogged thermostat!
Watch this space I guess...
Also need to snap a photo tomorrow to a product that I've for the first time found in this country, but saves a lot of time when trying to clean up oxidisation etc from metal hose connection stubs. One of those things I first came across in the US that's in every plumber/HVAC engineers toolbox, but haven't until last week ever found over here.
