98 gmc 5.7. What is the difficulty in changing and replacing water pump. Can a green hand change it without much problems.

 

yes you can do it yourself you will need to loosed up the belt tensionor release the belts remove the bolts that hold the water pump on put the new one on as simple as that hopefully ive never had one be too hard but you never no also clean the surface area of debri before putting th new pump on also make sure to get a new gasket for it if you dont have that then you can use silicone caulking for engines make sure its for automotive use and high temps but i strongly recomend useing the proper gasket beings your doing it yourself and probably dont have much experiance with mechanical stuff
if you use to much silicone caulking it will get into the pump when you tighten all the bolts up

 

Did one on my 98 'Hoe.

Easy, but you need to buy or make a special tool to remove that big ole nut.

 

I paid a shop $90 out the door to do mine... I"m not sure what the part costs but it didn't seem too bad to me

 

90 buucks for it... I would have jumped at that considering the trouble I went through making a special tool to hold the pulley in place in order to back off the big single nut that holds the pump on.

At least now I can use it on the burb and the silverado in the future....

 

When replacing the water pump, make sure you use sealant on the bolts. You can find sealant that is specifically designed for bolts that have threads that enter into coolant passages at any auto parts store. If you don't use the sealant on the bolts you have a greater chance of leaks at where the pump mates to the engine. That's what happenend when the previous owner of my truck replaced the water pump. It was leaking out the top bolt hole of the pump when i bought it. A couple of new gaskets and $5 for a tube of sealant, and I was back on the road leak free

 

is there anything special I should look out for when I change my water pump.......special gasket...cleaning ......install secrets...ect

 

You would really be fine to start your own thread on this instead of digging up a really REALLY old one.

Anyways, you need a fan clutch tool to take off the REVERSE THREADED nut holding on the fan clutch to the threads on the water pump. Remove the screws holding the upper fan shroud, take the fan off, remove the serpentine belt, drain cooling system, remove water pump, clean gasket off of block, install new tasket, torque bolts, reassemble reverse of removal.