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The first two pictures show where the crack is, this is not my car. You see the area with the crack marked in red. I found those pictures online.
The rest of the pictures shows my leak.
A part of the housing has broken off the Water Pump Housing because of an impact.
I'd like to find out if there is a way to weld this without having to pull the motor. I have looked at pictures of the motor pulled and can't make out if the aluminium plate that is on the rear of the motor can be removed while it is in the car. This plate prevents access to the rear of the crack in order to weld it.
A second idea, if that is not possible, might be to just weld the opening of the housing shut and feed coolant into the passenger side of the engine from somewhere else with a flexible or stainless pipe. I have already turned around the 90 degree inlet pipe which goes into the engine block.
I don't see any way you could get a reasonable fix without pulling the motor. You might be able to epoxy it in place with some aluminum epoxy stuff, but I'm not sure if it would last. The part could be welded but it would have to be out of the car and likely off of the motor to get a good weld on it. What I personally would do is pull the motor and replace it with a used pump housing from ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/2001-Porsche-911-Turbo-996-1055-3-6L-Water-Coolant-Pump-Housing/372481371198?epid=1823791405&hash=item56b99eac3e:g :fBkAAOSwsD1b0if2
If you can't swing that I'd try to epoxy it but not sure if it would survive the heat cycles.
Yeah, I can't see how you could possibly weld the top of that while the motor is still in the car. Having said that, looking at your pictures... It may be possible to remove that entire housing by removing the engine mount bracket and all the hose lines. It looks like the whole thing could just drop out the bottom. I haven't done that, but it looks possible. Just put a jack under the engine to support it and remove the engine mount bracket. At that point you can drop the engine a couple of inches to increase clearance a little if needed. Check to make sure you can remove all the screws on the housing before you get committed with all the hoses (I'm guessing removing coolant is no longer an issue).
I was not driving when it happened. Must have bottomed out right at the weakest point of the coolant housing. There are no other impact marks under the car.
My engine is out now so I'll go take a look and see if it is possible to remove while still in the car later this evening. I've not heard of anyone trying this.
After thinking about it for a bit I think you really need to replace the part. This would be a major red flag in a PPI that would hurt the value of the car more than the 800 dollar ebay part and any new buyer would be really pissed off if you didn't tell them about it.
The ebay part is no good. It is out of a 105 k miles car and will start to leak at the fittings soon. Cheaper to buy a new one, but they are five weeks out.
Welding is really not an issue. Remember that the correct leak repairs by BBI and GMG weld their new connectors to the cast aluminium water pump housing.
This looks like someone either ran something over, bottomed car out(not likely) or this was caused during a prior engine removal/reinstallation. Unless that car had been rear ended and the exhaust contacted that manifold just enough to crack and the break took time.
The ebay part is no good. It is out of a 105 k miles car and will start to leak at the fittings soon. Cheaper to buy a new one, but they are five weeks out.
Welding is really not an issue. Remember that the correct leak repairs by BBI and GMG weld their new connectors to the cast aluminium water pump housing.
12-03-2018, 08:43 PM
