Water pump
and belts
It's a major job removing a Lancia Delta engine, it requires patience and a good memory.
But having the engine out in the open makes replacing its parts much easier. This engine is out of its Evo1 for an overhaul, so lets renew the water pump.
A lovely box of new parts from AE Car
Against advice, I once fitted new belts to a Delta without renewing the water pump. Far away from home the pump sprang a leak, and had to be fixed, I think all the wiggling about renewing the belts disturbs the seal. This was of course, an expensive job to have done. So, as advised by experts, I always replace the water pump with a belt change.
This can be done with the engine in place, but here we have the
motor out so I can take some pictures of the job. I'm renewing the cam and balancer belts here as well, the pump can be removed without
removing the pulleys etc, but it is behind the cam belt so this must
be slackened off.
Remove the plastic belt shroud, if you're doing the belts too, remove the rocker cover spark plug cover, take the spark plugs out to release the compression when the engine is turned, and gently put a long screwdriver down no1 plug hole, rotate the bottom pulley until all the wheel marks line up. Rotate back and forwards a bit and watch the screwdriver, it should stop at its highest point when all the marks line up. This is a good physical check that the engine is at TDC.
Tippex all the marks, then remove the outer bottom pulley, slacken off both belt tensioners, take off the balancer belt then undo that bottom pulley, this big central bolt is a left hand thread, and will be tight. With the engine out, you will be planning to replace the clutch, ideally you'll have removed the gearbox and clutch by now, so screw 2 spare bolts into the flywheel clutch bolt holes. Take a length of timber and brace the flywheel to stop it turning, you will then have no trouble undoing the bottom pulley bolt, and tightening it up again. Remove the sprocket wheel then the cam belt from the small inner pulley. The alternator is already removed from this engine, but that should be slack too for belt removal.
Now all is scarily revealed! All the cogs and wheels unconnected, but you've marked everything, so it'll go back ok! You may now remove the water pump.
Each water pump bolt is a different size, so as you remove them note the order. The water outlet pipe attaches to the pump with 2 different size bolts also, usefully. When the engine is out you can choose to remove this pipe at the pump, or split the joint at the rubber hose around the back. I chose the latter.
The rubber T hose fitting had broken off, Walkers have a replacement, unusually this item was cheap enough (£30 ish), and looked
good and durable.
So I undid the pump to engine bolts, then split the pump pipe at the old hose, and detached the curved alloy pipe from the pump body on the bench. I gave the surfaces a good clean, scraping the old gasket off the block too, stuffing a rag in the pump's block hole first to prevent bits going in, I polished up the curved pipe a bit. Refitting the pump out of the car meant I could bolt the curved pipe on to the new pump on the bench, making sure the gasket was Hylomar-ed and properly in place.
I assembled the Walkers pipe, put a new gasket on the pump
housing and manipulated all into place.
The pump bolts go through the engine water jacket, so they will be corroded on removal, give these a good wire brushing, mine had plumbers tape on them! probably a step too far. Clean the bolts, then apply some Hylomar to the threads before replacing them, keeping
all in order of course.
I cleaned and painted this tin belt shield shown above in the centre pic, the pump pipe flange top bolt locates the shield, as usual
a previous mechanic had cut a slit in the bolt hole so the shield is a bit easier to refit, it is a twat to fit back with the motor in the car.
The shield is Hammerited now, no one will see it though!
Tighten the pump up, the bolts go into the steel block, so they can be good and tight. Don't forget to fit the lower pulley shield mounting bracket at the bottom bolt of the pump.
As you know, a Delta is so packed with components, all have to be replaced in a certain order, I've often fitted something, then had to take it off again to fit an item behind it. So, don't fit the pump drive wheel until last, nor the outer bottom pulley wheel, you'll need to get at bolts
behind them.
Fit the cam belt and tighten it with the new tensioner bearing that came with the belt kit. There are 2 holes in this bearing face, tighten the centre nut to friction, then put a bolt in each hole, insert a good screwdriver and turn the bearing, this'll tension the belt, when it's tight nip up the centre nut. In the absense of a tension guage, a good tension is when you can just twist the belt to 60 degrees between the cam wheels. I'll be advised otherwise if anyone knows better!
Put the balancer belt drive sprocket to its marks over the cam sprocket, fit the centre bolt and tighten to 190Nm, this is about a 4ft length of scaffold pole torque. The left hand balancer shaft wheel lines up with a mark on the water pump above the lh bolt hole, the right wheel mark is on the metal front cover, fit the belt, keeping to the marks. Tension up the centre bolt to friction then put a good sized long allen key in the hole and turn the bearing until the belt is at tension,
then tighten the centre bolt to 44Nm.
Give all the nuts and bolts a nip up to torque, the pump body bolts should be 25Nm. Now fit the water pump drive pulley, I gave mine a clean up and spray of primer, just to show I'd been there!
Torque the little bolts to 23Nm.
Remove the screwdriver from the spark plug hole and gently turn the engine twice, if nothing catches, you've done it! Turn it a few more times and check if all the marks line up at TDC, if they don't line up slacken the tensioner off and adjust, it's easy to fix now
After all the turning, check the belt tensions once more, too tight and it'll be noisy and strain the cam bearings, too loose and they can skip a tooth. Give your bolts one last check also, and it's done.
This cam belt and pump job is probably the most important task for an Integrale owner.
The last one I did was on an Evo1 with the engine in situ, and clearance was tight to remove the water pump, the engine needs jacking up to clear the chassis leg.
Having the engine out makes it much easier, if you combine this job with a clutch replacement and some inner engine bay repairs, the time and trouble saved is worth dropping the engine for.
These bottom pulley bolts can be difficult to get in, the last one never seems to pick up its thread.Turn the wheel 1 hole and try again, they are a precision fit.
No one will see this lovely wheel until the next time it's changed, it'll be dirty again by then.
Your work can be visually checked with the engine out,
and all the bolts checked for tightness, next for me is the clutch, then stick the lump back in the car.
Thanks for looking.