More snow....

[BIGNASTY]

I'm sold!! Haven't had ours long enough to make an Opinion really, So far its been more than what we hoped for. Quality throughout!!

 

[The patriot]

My brother had a Northstar. It was nice until about 150K miles. Then the head gasket happened....

 

[JR]

What you do when you just can't get the rear lower rat ba***rd bolts tight...

Double wrench and 33+ black tape....


View attachment 91345

I have several old wrenches (duplicates) that I have needed to do something similar with. I simply cut the open end off with a deli wheel so I can slip a chunk of heavy wall conduit over. One end is slightly mushroomed to accommodate larger wrenches. Works well.

I put the Dodge in the center median this winter coming home from work after pulling a double night shift on a big shutdown. Roads were nasty, barely one lane open on a double lane freeway (2 lanes each way separated by a large grassy median approxately 50 ft wide). I was in 4x4, travelling approximately 55-60mph all by my lonesome when my eyeballs lost the battle with gravity. I came around to snow blowing over the hood of the truck, I let off a split second before I realized where I was and mashed the skinny pedal to the floor...miraculously she came back out of the deep stuff albeit a touch sideways...I was wide awake after that
Workin nights is rough especially on the tail end of 16 hours or more and your body is used to being on a regular schedule, I.E. GOING TO BED AT NIGHT. People just ain't meant to be up all night.

 

[mwilson]

Back together. No apparent leaks. I will know for sure in the morning.

Water pump has its own belt and little bitty tensioner..

 

[TFucili]

What a project, Mike. The last two water pumps I did were my '05 CTD, and recently a 351W in an old F-350. Both were a piece of cake. Serviceability seems to be slipping lower and lower on the totem pole of engineering priority on most stuff.

 

[rscurtis]

4.6L. Very advanced piece of engineering.

So was the V8-6-4 and the HT 4100 that followed. That's when long-time customers stopped buying Caddy's.

 

[mwilson]

4.6L. Very advanced piece of engineering.

So was the V8-6-4 and the HT 4100 that followed. That's when long-time customers stopped buying Caddy's.

That's right, those two beauties were hard on the customer base. My mother still has the last Fleetwood that my step-father owned. That has the HT-4100 in it. I cringe every time that I start the thing. But it has made the 100,000 mile mark.

The Northstar design was fine, cutting corners on sealing materials and not listening to anyone regarding head studs instead of bolts hurt them. In spite of that it enjoyed a 25 year production run. One horsepower per cubic inch in a front wheel drive platform. Drive it like you stole it and it is a much happier engine. Change the coolant every five years.
The 2006 thru 2011 DTS Cadillacs rate as one the most reliable cars on the road. I checked before buying this one.

The water pump was not totally gone yet and someone that didn't give a crap could probably have squeezed a few more years out of it and just added coolant on occasion. I'm not wired like that and spanking miles on like I do I want things as right as reasonably possible.

Mike.

 

[rscurtis]

I fixed the typo, I couldn't let that go.

 

[mwilson]

I also have to challenge myself with projects like this. Don't want to turn into a total desk jockey.

I can still wrench at a fairly high level, just not fast at it. Now if I were to tear into another Northstar water pump today I would do it much quicker having learned some tricks.

I meant to get a picture of it before I put it back in. The lower 4 bolts and one of the upper bolts HAVE TO go in with the manifold as there is no room to put them in afterwards. So it goes in with all gaskets on and bolts in place. Best tip that I found was to use rubber bands around each pair of bolts to hold them. That's what I did and it worked well.

 

[Jim W]

Mike glad you got the car back together.

Oh BTW it is snowing in Chicago area today they are predicting 3+ inches in my area. It is spring 3/23/15 occurring to the calendar.

Jim W.

 

[mwilson]

I am starting to question if we are even going to get spring this year or if it may just jump directly to summer......

 

[CBari]

Mike this is a first I have heard of rubber bands to hold bolts, do you have any pictures of this step. I think I can see it in my mind but would like to see picture if you have one.

 

[The patriot]

I've often said the people who "engineer" these things expect everyone to have hands as small as a baby, but as strong as Lou Ferrigno.

 

[mwilson]

Don't poke fun at my drawing......

 

[mwilson]

Bolts can't fall out, gasket stays in place on the back side. Cut the rubber bands after I got the manifold in place and all of the bolts started into the block.

 

[GCroyle]

Back together. No apparent leaks. I will know for sure in the morning.

Well, look on the bright side, ya didn't have to take the body off to work on the water pump after all.

But, best not tease the Leak Gremlins with this premature, yup its all done folks. Might be ya' flipped a gasket and will be pointing coolant due south if'n ya ain't right with the bolt Kings and Queens!

I flipped the exhaust gasket on the TDI when I cleaned the intake manifold, had exhaust gasket stringers going right across the intake ports on the head. Razor knife and a bit of trimming, all's well but you couldn't see it and I proved to them didn't make it idiot proof.#@$%!

We got trees starting to leaf out.

 

[CBari]

Mike thanks for the picture (Picasso drawing) I can see what you did now and know that I will be using that trick in the future. If I can find a rubber band when I need one.

 

[mwilson]

Mike thanks for the picture (Picasso drawing) I can see what you did now and know that I will be using that trick in the future. If I can find a rubber band when I need one.

I was skeptical but desperate so figured why not try it....Worked really, really well.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Don't poke fun at my drawing......


View attachment 91349

Waxed Dental Floss works well also, the waxed floss sticks to itself and if you leave a little bit of a tail on it you can get bolts started and pull the end of the floss and it slides off clean.

BIG

 

[mwilson]

Winter still refuses to give up..... -1 below at my house this morning. Much colder 2 hours North of me..

Everyone now has a cold (including me) from the drastic swings in temperature....perfect...

http://bangordailynews.com/2015/04/...s-april-records-with-below-zero-temperatures/