2003 Disco 2 4.6L v8

Now I'm ultimately going to do whatever is necessary, but I would like to see if anyone has any experience with this in the past.
I recently changed my water pump given that it seemed to be the culprit of the leaking water(pretty slow, was able to get around and needed to top off every 50-100 miles, then it randomly didn't leave on a drive that would have drained in weeks prior.
got in there and changed the water pump. only to arrive at an appointment to find my car leaking massive amounts of water, far more than before, enough to drain the entire reservoir in a 5 minute drive. upon inspection I'm under the impression that the water moves through the top of the timing cover, and that may be the issue. Considering I have to safely assume the gaskets are pretty much original or close to it. I'm going to opt in to changing it to see if that gets my cooling loop buttoned up.

my question is, has anyone ever taken off the timing chain cover without removing the water pump from its mounting point. Or are there bolts that go through both? I noticed the length of some of the bolts going through the water pump and had to assume they went all the way to the block, meaning not particularly possible.

but if I pulled those off, could I keep the water pump compressed to the timing chain cover enough to not ruin the gasket I just installed on the new water pump?

and experience or foresight in the matter confirming or denying my suspicions would be greatly appreciated.

 

You’re right the long bolts go right through. I don’t have any experience removing the timing cover with the pump still attached but it seems you could do it if you removed the long bolts, in theory anyway.

 

Several years ago a friend's '04 DII had a massive coolant leak. It was the timing cover gasket. Coolant (water) would pour out almost as fast as we could add it to the reservoir.

As for leaving the water pump in place on the timing cover, I recall there are only 2-4 of the 9 bolts go all the way through, but I don't recall which ones and exactly how many. What you suggest may work if you can figure out which water pump bolts are the long ones. The RAVE doesn't show that info, but you may be able to search the forum to find out or perhaps someone will reply here to let you know.

 

Thanks for the replies, Im pretty sure i remember off the top of my hed which ones go through, (theres two long ones on the right hand (driver side) of the water pump, one of which lets the coolant out, and one just bottom left of the pulley, I may have to do some trial and error to see whats what. I will update here for anyone who is curious, should be next week when I get things going.

 

Just do one bolt at a time. If it's short, put it back and move on. You won't disturb the gasket just by removing one bolt.

 

The timing cover is the larger bolts, maybe their are a couple smaller ones too, I can't remember. But YES you can do the timing cover without removing/separating the water pump from the cover.

 

Post #3 on this thread might help you out.

https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...nfusion-83372/

 

The long bolts are the ones on either side of the water pump passages.

 

This is Huge you rock my friend!!

 

So, time for an update...

For anyone wondering about pulling timing cover without oulling water pump. 100% easy and fine. Its still pressed together by plenty of hardware

Thanks to Extinct, that picture shows what needs to be pulled. Those particular bolts also have clear channels behind the water pump where they go into the block.

As for my dumbass

I went to reinstall the harmonic balancer and pushed the oil pump gear through the back of the bracket inside the timing cover

oh well, live and learn, new hardware on the way. Everything will button up quick and easy after. Bringing new water pump that was recently replaced to the new timing cover. Gonna resurface the actual timing cover and keep and eye out for the planetary gears in the oil pump just in case of emergency.

That's where I've been. When the new timing cover comes, I'm considering putting in a pressure guage for the oil and a digital water temp sensor. Seen a few posts about this.

Hope everyone has had a better go with their rigs lately. Hope all is well with everyone.

This is how not to install a harmonic balancer
- Rainy