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Quick question (water pump)

cgator said:
ok from what i understand i have a 97 so i only have one of those coolant elbows
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If you only have one elbow then be very careful with the coolant fitting that is built into the alternator bracket. I broke one on a bonneville and had to get the whole alternator bracket.:th_lipssealed2:
 


Your elbow part number from GM is 24503423. A dealer should have it. Unfortunately I don't see an O'reillys near Tampa, so I hope that helps you out.

The elbow will probably break off inside the manifold as well....so take a pick and dig it out before you try putting the new one back in.
 
Don't get the ones from AZ that are in the Help section. On the Bonneville forums guys claim that some of those made in China will break again real quick.

Brian gave the GM part number, get that.IMO
 
What Lee said, get the GM one. I got O'Reallys Help section ones and the one into the LIM leaked something fierce. Nothing RTV couldn't fix, but still a pain to have to take apart a second time.
 
I went with the ones that ZZP sells (was buying other stuff from them at the time, and it was convenient. They must be GM parts because they're not leaking yet about a year later. Knock on wood...
 


Well crap, you guys must be getting some horrible stuff cause I had AZ elbows in mine and I put them in there shortly after I got the car so they been in there for a good three years, I replaced them with another set from AZ or Oreilly's, I dont remember which when I had to replace my LIM gaskets.
 
Yea I have an autozone nearby the closest gm dealer is 23 miles away. Is there anyway I can custom make one say using the inserts from a new one but possibly cutting it a little before the bend and fitting a rubber coolant hose over it with some clamps maybe to prevent this from happening again. Right now I quick fixed it with some rvt I gooped some rvt around the elbow then cut a coolant hose and wrapped it around and clamped it without removing the s/c or alternator and its holding really well it don't leak and my temp stays right at 180* but I would like to custom make one like I said using just the connection points with a rubber hose with clamps wich should work well and hopefully solve this common cracking issue.
 
I've personally installed Autozone Help Isle coolant elbows on 3 different motors (x2 L67s and x1 L32) and they went in flawlessly and leak free. I compared them to the stockers and they appeared to be the same. All I used was grease and stuck em in.

I don't believe this stuff about the HELP isle ones being bad honestly. I think this started because of one person had a problem means that there all junk. I wouldn't be surprised if the GM elbows and the Help elbows weren't made by the same manufactor, just reboxed. I'm being honest here guys. I'm pretty picky on what I use for my cars, and these are just fine IMO...
 
Ok I'm just going to use the AZ ones so what's the easiest way to change it do I have to remove the s/c or can I just remove the alternator bracket and do it that way.
 
Iron Indian said:
I've personally installed Autozone Help Isle coolant elbows on 3 different motors (x2 L67s and x1 L32) and they went in flawlessly and leak free. I compared them to the stockers and they appeared to be the same. All I used was grease and stuck em in.

I don't believe this stuff about the HELP isle ones being bad honestly. I think this started because of one person had a problem means that there all junk. I wouldn't be surprised if the GM elbows and the Help elbows weren't made by the same manufactor, just reboxed. I'm being honest here guys. I'm pretty picky on what I use for my cars, and these are just fine IMO...
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The bonnevilles, for whatever reason, are harder on the elbows. There are differences in the quality of the Help ones. Fair warning on the Help ones made in China. There are detectable visual differences in the elbows. I researched this to death when I was replacing these and don't feel like digging it all up again.

Btw, as far as I can tell, it wasn't one guy that started all of this.

But hey, to the OP, if you buy cheapy ones and they give you no problems, excellent. However, if in a few months you have a leak, then at least some of us tried.:cool:
 


I suspect its like anything else, you get some bad ones here and there. Most people dont give much thought to such things if they work well, but get a couple bad ones and people start talking analyzing and such and before you know it everyone of that part from that manufacturer is trash.

The ones I bought, in both cases looked identical to the ones that were originally on the motor. Ive also seen little discussion on the possibility on whether or not there could be an installation issue, may not be likely given the simplicity, but Ive seen stranger.

Wasnt it the Rollmaster double roller timing chain everyone was writing off as being trash because they were breaking left and right? Didnt it turn out not to be a quality issue after all but a fitment issue due to an incorrect chamfer?
 
So is there anything else in that area that may leak coolant besides the elbows and the water pump gasket.? After replacing my intake manifold gaskets my 2000 3800 GT is now leaking coolant from the serpentine belt side of the engine (it was leaking from the other side originally.) The leak didn't seem to start until several days after the intake manifold gaskets were replaced, but I have to think that the two problems are related in some way, so maybe I damaged one of the coolant elbows. Where is the second elbow located. I can see the front elbow and that doesn't seem to be leaking. Thanks in advance.
 
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