71 240z water pump bolts

[rkatk]

There are five bolts to mount the water pump to the timing cover but there are 7 holes. Are the other 2 holes in the timing cover for alignment pins or are there supposed to be threaded studs there?

Thanks,

Randy

[siteunseen]

Just replaced mine on a '72 and it has 2 alignment dowels on the front cover. 1 at 2 o'clock & and the other at 8 o'clock. Hope that helps.

[DatsunDoug]

Does it matter if one of the two dowel pins is missing? When I took mine apart only one of the two pins was there. Where could I find another dowel pin

Just replaced mine on a '72 and it has 2 alignment dowels on the front cover. 1 at 2 o'clock & and the other at 8 o'clock. Hope that helps.

[Zed Head]

Is the other stuck in the water pump?

[DatsunDoug]

Nope, my guess is the previous mechanic was missing the pin and just left it out. My understanding is that the main purpose of the dowel pins is to make it easier to seat the gasket and align the pump correctly prior to tightening the bolts. I measured the remaining pin with my calipers, it was ~ 5 mm or about 0.20"....so I took a 5 mm cap screw, cut off the head, put some loctite red on the threads and tapped it into the front cover.

Spent a fair amount of time scraping old gasket, lubing the bolts and cleaning them up, etc.

Cleaned a ton of black/greasy mess off the front cover. Where is this coming from? Valve cover? front cover? Fuel pump gaskets?

Is the other stuck in the water pump?

[siteunseen]

I'd go ahead without that other line up pin. And I think all that grease/oil is because of the oil pump and timing chain being behind all that. They all will do it. Clean it then see how soon it comes back, you could have a torn gasket around the front cover.