I love these guys who see the question about changing the P38 Range Rover V8 water pump, quickly look it up on RAVE and then write knowledgeably, Easy job say about 2 hours
This is the story of changing mine on my 1998 4.0 P38. It is a long saga of anger, of wounded pride, bloodshed and broken bones ...
When my P38 started losing a little bit of water I had a good look round, but it wasnt until the old girl became incontinent and I noticed the little puddle of coolant dripping down from the front of the V8 that I realised the water pump was shot. So I naively ordered the 36mm fan nut spanner and the water pump from eBay.
Plan A
When they arrived I had a day left before I went back to work, so I put on my thermals and leaned into an arctic blizzard to open the RR bonnet. The only thing that went without a hitch was taking off the upper radiator shroud, after that it went rapidly downhill. I gave the hub spanner a couple of taps (anti-clockwise) with a hammer, hoping to release the fan nut, but no dice. Realising I was going to need some serious torque on the nut to shift it I took some time to cut a piece of thin timber to trap it between one of the pulley boltheads and the ground, then I slid a 3 piece of scaffold-pole over the hub spanner and prepared to hit it as hard as I could with a 6lb sledgehammer.
Luckily, my local Casualty was not busy, so x-raying my left hand to find the cracked bone didnt take too long. The doctor turned out to be a 4X4 guy, and when I told him I was working on my P38 he said sympathetically, You werent trying to take off the water-pump, were you?
When I got back to the Range Rover standing forlornly with the bonnet open in the biting cold I realised I needed a plan B. So I closed the bonnet, went indoors and ordered a replacement fan (£20 off eBay), a tube of red Hermetite (yeah, I know Im an old codger but Ive never had a Hermetited gasket leak) and a 4 general purpose cutting disk for my angle grinder.
Plan B
The viscous radiator fan is a huge affair with a big outer plastic ring. It seriously restricts the clearance and access to the water-pump, so using the angle grinder and the GP cutting blade I cut three blades and the associated outer ring away, leaving 100 degrees of clear access. There was still not enough room to use my angle-grinder on the hub nut that would be far too easy - but this was enough to pull off the outlet hose, remove the 3 pulley bolts, leaving enough clearance for the 9 water pump bolts (CAREFUL keep these bolts in order. I used a heavy piece of card with a tracing of the water-pump gasket and pushed each bolt through the card to keep them until I was ready for them. Some are 3 long and look like they access an oil gallery and a water channel, so dont get them confused).
With the pump bolts out the water pump fell off (although you may need to tap it off) and the pump together with the loose pulley and the banjaxed fan all came out without damaging the fragile radiator in front of it. I removed it to the bench. Here, the pulley wheel is now trapped between the pump and the fan, so at this stage youll be thinking that one can trap up the impeller blades in order to free the fan nut. Good idea, I thought, so I trapped the impeller in my 6 bench vice and used the aforementioned length of scaffold pole and sledgehammer and gave hub spanner a good whack.
Yes of course the impeller stripped off the shaft, the scaffold pole leapt into the air and skinned all the knuckles on my right hand! Standing there, holding my hand out so I didnt drip blood down my jeans and wiping my dirty face with my other bandaged hand, I must have looked like an extra from Gladiator, but without the muscles.
The pulley had to come off. Both the fan and the pump were junk, so I didnt have to be delicate; I needed another plan.
Plan C.
Using a new metal cutting disk on my angle grinder I cut an X through the pump shaft where the impeller had been, then cut all of the shaft as far into the body of the pump as I could. Then I used a drift to drive the shaft through the water pump body, freeing the pulley at last. The remainder of the work was very easy, taking no more than half an hour.
I cleaned away any loose part of the old gasket, then I hermetited both sides of the new gasket and bolted up the new water pump, resited the pulley wheel and the pump hose, put the fan-belt back, filled up the coolant, ran the car and checked for leaks. When I was certain everything was okay and not a second before, I put the replacement viscous fan on.
Conclusion.
By all means buy the 36mm hub spanner if you like. You might even be adventurous enough to try it, but believe me, after thirteen years of electrolysis in the fine thread between the steel hub and the alloy fan body, nothing short of a 10 kiloton nuclear detonation would shift the fan hub on mine.
Pain-Free Method
Replace the Fan as well as the pump (second-hand fans are quite cheap).
Cut away the existing plastic fan to get access to the pump outlet hose and the pump pulley.
Undo the pump outlet hose.
Undo the three pulley nuts, freeing the pulley.
Undo the 9 water pump bolts; some are 10mm; three are 11mm, keep them in order.
Remove the water pump and fan from the engine bay.
Using an angle grinder and metal-cutter disk, cut a very deep X through the impeller shaft, then remove as much of the shaft as possible right down to the housing, then tap the shaft through the pump body with a drift to free the pulley.
This way you would accomplish the whole job in two hours, provided that you have all the tools to hand.
Parts & Tools
Replacement fan; new water pump, red Hermetite, 10,11,12,13mm sockets, ring spanners. Angle grinder, GP cutting disk, metal cutting disk, safety glasses and heavy gloves.
This is the story of changing mine on my 1998 4.0 P38. It is a long saga of anger, of wounded pride, bloodshed and broken bones ...
When my P38 started losing a little bit of water I had a good look round, but it wasnt until the old girl became incontinent and I noticed the little puddle of coolant dripping down from the front of the V8 that I realised the water pump was shot. So I naively ordered the 36mm fan nut spanner and the water pump from eBay.
Plan A
When they arrived I had a day left before I went back to work, so I put on my thermals and leaned into an arctic blizzard to open the RR bonnet. The only thing that went without a hitch was taking off the upper radiator shroud, after that it went rapidly downhill. I gave the hub spanner a couple of taps (anti-clockwise) with a hammer, hoping to release the fan nut, but no dice. Realising I was going to need some serious torque on the nut to shift it I took some time to cut a piece of thin timber to trap it between one of the pulley boltheads and the ground, then I slid a 3 piece of scaffold-pole over the hub spanner and prepared to hit it as hard as I could with a 6lb sledgehammer.
Luckily, my local Casualty was not busy, so x-raying my left hand to find the cracked bone didnt take too long. The doctor turned out to be a 4X4 guy, and when I told him I was working on my P38 he said sympathetically, You werent trying to take off the water-pump, were you?
When I got back to the Range Rover standing forlornly with the bonnet open in the biting cold I realised I needed a plan B. So I closed the bonnet, went indoors and ordered a replacement fan (£20 off eBay), a tube of red Hermetite (yeah, I know Im an old codger but Ive never had a Hermetited gasket leak) and a 4 general purpose cutting disk for my angle grinder.
Plan B
The viscous radiator fan is a huge affair with a big outer plastic ring. It seriously restricts the clearance and access to the water-pump, so using the angle grinder and the GP cutting blade I cut three blades and the associated outer ring away, leaving 100 degrees of clear access. There was still not enough room to use my angle-grinder on the hub nut that would be far too easy - but this was enough to pull off the outlet hose, remove the 3 pulley bolts, leaving enough clearance for the 9 water pump bolts (CAREFUL keep these bolts in order. I used a heavy piece of card with a tracing of the water-pump gasket and pushed each bolt through the card to keep them until I was ready for them. Some are 3 long and look like they access an oil gallery and a water channel, so dont get them confused).
With the pump bolts out the water pump fell off (although you may need to tap it off) and the pump together with the loose pulley and the banjaxed fan all came out without damaging the fragile radiator in front of it. I removed it to the bench. Here, the pulley wheel is now trapped between the pump and the fan, so at this stage youll be thinking that one can trap up the impeller blades in order to free the fan nut. Good idea, I thought, so I trapped the impeller in my 6 bench vice and used the aforementioned length of scaffold pole and sledgehammer and gave hub spanner a good whack.
Yes of course the impeller stripped off the shaft, the scaffold pole leapt into the air and skinned all the knuckles on my right hand! Standing there, holding my hand out so I didnt drip blood down my jeans and wiping my dirty face with my other bandaged hand, I must have looked like an extra from Gladiator, but without the muscles.
The pulley had to come off. Both the fan and the pump were junk, so I didnt have to be delicate; I needed another plan.
Plan C.
Using a new metal cutting disk on my angle grinder I cut an X through the pump shaft where the impeller had been, then cut all of the shaft as far into the body of the pump as I could. Then I used a drift to drive the shaft through the water pump body, freeing the pulley at last. The remainder of the work was very easy, taking no more than half an hour.
I cleaned away any loose part of the old gasket, then I hermetited both sides of the new gasket and bolted up the new water pump, resited the pulley wheel and the pump hose, put the fan-belt back, filled up the coolant, ran the car and checked for leaks. When I was certain everything was okay and not a second before, I put the replacement viscous fan on.
Conclusion.
By all means buy the 36mm hub spanner if you like. You might even be adventurous enough to try it, but believe me, after thirteen years of electrolysis in the fine thread between the steel hub and the alloy fan body, nothing short of a 10 kiloton nuclear detonation would shift the fan hub on mine.
Pain-Free Method
Replace the Fan as well as the pump (second-hand fans are quite cheap).
Cut away the existing plastic fan to get access to the pump outlet hose and the pump pulley.
Undo the pump outlet hose.
Undo the three pulley nuts, freeing the pulley.
Undo the 9 water pump bolts; some are 10mm; three are 11mm, keep them in order.
Remove the water pump and fan from the engine bay.
Using an angle grinder and metal-cutter disk, cut a very deep X through the impeller shaft, then remove as much of the shaft as possible right down to the housing, then tap the shaft through the pump body with a drift to free the pulley.
This way you would accomplish the whole job in two hours, provided that you have all the tools to hand.
Parts & Tools
Replacement fan; new water pump, red Hermetite, 10,11,12,13mm sockets, ring spanners. Angle grinder, GP cutting disk, metal cutting disk, safety glasses and heavy gloves.
