Haven't been able to find details on water pump repacement with regards to using a sealant / RTV on the gasket or not. It's a rubber coated metal gasket so that's why I'm questioning the need for sealant. Never delt with this kind of gasket on a water pump before.

 

Please advise, thx!

The stock water pump gasket should not need any rtv sealant on it.

No sealer is needed on rubber gaskets. The rubber makes the seal, it doesn't need any help.

That's what I figured; thanks for the input!

Aftermarket one's are very often paper - I use a small coating of RTV on that style but not the OEM syle metal gasket.

 

GD

Yeah that's what I've done with all the other water pumps... paper gaskets and RTV. Glad to have this neat rubber coated one!

 

 

Happen to know the proper torque specs for the water pump bolts?

I don't use a torque wrench on them - just a 1/4" drive ratchet and make them evenly tight. Never had one leak yet.

 

GD

In regards to the gasket, I always shoot one side with some spray adhesive to make it stick to the new pump.

 

Then youre not struggling with lining everything up and trying to get the pump on the block PLUS hold the gasket!

I don't use a torque wrench on them - just a 1/4" drive ratchet and make them evenly tight. Never had one leak yet.

 

GD

 

That's how I've done it in the past as well; don't even own a torque wrench =/

 

However I'm thinking about actually buying one and using it for this weekend project (timing belts, cam seals, crank seal, reseal oil pump, water pump)

It might be useful at times. You would need two different torque wrenches - the water pump bolts are going to be in inch/pounds because they are so small while the cam bolts and the crank bolt will be in foot/pounds. Nothing wrong with using one - I just never do for stuff like that. I use them for lug nuts to avoid warping rotors (especially on EJ's), axle nuts, and head bolts.

 

It's very subjective though - if you don't feel confident that you can "feel" them to the right tightness then a torque wrench is the way to go - also not a bad thing to have on hand since there are times when you will need one - might not be a Subaru or maybe not even a car at all, but there are times. One place they come in handy is on dead-axle wheel bearings where you have a nut that sets the tapered roller bearing preload - usually that involves torquing to some value then backing the nut off a specified amount. Hard to do without the proper insturment.

 

One thing I've noticed - for "small" torque wrenches, quality makes a big difference. When you are talking about inch pounds the mechanism is small and delicate and a quality tool is much better here. Especially if you need one that goes down to 1 inch/pound increments. For the foot/pound units the cheaper models seem to do fine. 150 ft/lbs is a lot of force and even the chinese seem to be building wrenches that can handle this type of measurement

 

GD

Good points; and I'm certainly not going to buy two at this point. Thx GD

When you consider that a decent inch-pound measurement torque wrench costs ~$80+ it becomes less of a necessity unless you will be doing a LOT of work on smaller bolts that need proper torque. Most things that require such little force, if you break the bolt you did too much, if it leaks then you didn't do enough. If you manage to break the part (not all that hard to do with aluminum parts actually) then you need to pay attention to the proper tightening sequence. Generally it starts towards the middle and works outward.