Newb Maintenance Success - Water Pump and Spark Plugs

I just wanted to give a big shout out to TW for the wealth of information that everyone has put on here and to share my experience with DIY Maintenance...

Over the past few weeks I had been trying to diagnose a coolant leak, and through opinions and experience on here, I narrowed it down to the water pump. I used this thread extensively, as well as the service manual (I attached the pdf's I used - note on the Water Pump pdf's, steps 7, 10 and 11 can be skipped - you don't need to remove all that) http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/206244-diy-2nd-gen-water-pump-replacement.html

The process was pretty easy, but took me a while to complete. All-in-all I spent 6 hours to replace the water pump and change out the spark plugs (I'm at 87k). While researching the project, a few things were kind of difficult to find, i.e. all the gaskets needed, so I wanted to list and clarify a few things and share what the difficult parts of the process were for me.

The first thing I'll clarify is the parts I needed. Others have included things like, new belt, new pulleys, and tensioner - but I just went with water pump and thermostat. This is for 1GR-FE engine

1. Aisin Water Pump -$80 from Amazon, comes with large metal/rubber gasket
2. Thermostat - $~30 dollars. Not sure which gasket it comes with because I bought mine from a TW member.
3. Threadlocker
4. 3 gallons of Toyota Pink Antifreeze - $63 from dealer (with discount)
5. 3 o-ring shaped gaskets (shown in pic). I got all of mine from RockAuto for a few bucks. They are Victor Reinz C32162 and C32181, and Fel-Pro 35654. One of the Victor Reinz gasket goes between the thermostat and water inlet and the other Victor Reinz gasket goes between the water inlet and the water pump. The Fel-Pro goes on the Water Outlet pipe that the Water Inlet pushes on to. Shown in 2nd pic



So, because I had to buy all new antifreeze, it was about $180 in parts. I also found a $7 needle type torque wrench at Menards. Seems like something not to skimp on but based on the torque ranges I was in during this project, it suited my needs very well. http://www.menards.com/main/tools-h...ches/2-way-torque-wrench/p-1465989-c-9157.htm

The main problem I had was draining the coolant. The first drain under the radiator was obviously easy to find and drained about 6 quarts of coolant. I could not locate the engine block drains and went ahead without draining them - I got coolant EVERYWHERE. So, definitely make sure you find those drain plugs. The majority of the remaining coolant came out when I pulled the front-most oil cooler hose. The first pic shows the hose pulled away from the oil filter - lots of coolant came out of this end. The second pic shows the hose completely removed and more coolant coming out. This could probably be caught relatively easily. The rest of the coolant came out when I loosened the water pump bolts. Speaking of loosening the water pump bolts - one of them is located directly behind the tensioner - so you need to loosen it while rotating the tensioner out of the way. You can insert a screwdriver to hold the tensioner open, but it is still in the way because it recoils just a little.




Here is my old water pump compared with the new one. You can easily see how gunked up the old weep hole was compared to the shiny new one. Confirmed for me that the water pump was the problem!




Here is the new pump installed! After installing it, I sprayed the coolant off the pulleys and lower engine parts, being careful not to let any get in the opening on the top of the water pump where the water inlet connects.



While putting the belt back on, just stick a screwdriver in the hole to the bottom right of the tensioner. You kind of have to jimmy it a bit but a medium size screwdriver will push in and hold your tensioner so you can install the belt. The belt route is located here http://www.customtacos.com/tech/files/05FSM/data/ileaf/06toyrm/06toypdf/06rmsrc/rm2006ta/00700.pdf. There is a "cap" type gear right behind the 4 fly wheel bolts - to make the belt install easier, I put the 4 nuts back on to hold the cap in place while I installed the belt. After tensioning the belt, just remove the nuts to re-install the fly wheel later.



While the truck was drying from spraying off the coolant, I went ahead and did my spark plugs - took me maybe 45 minutes to do all six. Just follow this thread and it's easy as pie - http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/30479-how-spark-plug-change-1-gr-fe.html

The only thing I had a little trouble with was my spark plug socket had a rubber sleeve inside it to "grab" the spark plugs and pull them out. While installing a new plug, i pulled the socket out but the rubber stayed on the newly installed plug. Took me a while to notice this - so just be mindful of that rubber in the socket while working and check it often.

Here's my old spark plugs (compared with the new ones). The new ones from the dealer were pre-gapped at .042-.043. Right on with the manual.



After getting the spark plugs done, I went back to finish putting the rig back together. The hardest part for me was getting the rear bypass hose (closest to the cab) back on the water inlet. It's tight back in there! But patience and persistence wins here. Also, the o-ring gasket between the inlet and water pump wanted to jump out of the groove on me, but if you put it in the groove and "gently" move your hand away, it'll stay put long enough for you to get the water inlet on. To install the water inlet, I got all 5 bolts started, and went in a star-pattern tightening each one about 50% of the way. I repeated this until they were all tight, to ensure the inlet lined up properly. Also, removing and re-installing the (4) fly-wheel nuts is tricky, but can be done from above the engine.


I have regurgitated a lot of information on this site, but seeing as this was my first big DIY maintenance project (other than oil changes), I wanted to share my experience and give a confidence boost to anyone considering doing your own work on your taco. It really is quite simple, especially with all the help on TW. Just make sure you have a full day to get the work done and enjoy getting to know your Taco