Is there a water pump seal rejuvenator?

Does anyone make a magic liquid water pump seal rejuvenator? I know the bearing is good, but the seal is shot probably from sitting in a yard dry for a couple years. I would really like to not have to do a water pump on a 3SGTE at the moment, and if I could get a few months out of it, that would be great.

But, on the plus side, it started and it's boosting. y0.

I don't think there is anything available anymore for water pump lube or a seal conditioner that would work with coolant or water. WP bearings have been sealed for years, and I'm sure they're now nitrile seals instead of packing. In my 27 years of the parts business, I would get about one request per year for WP lube. Not enough for me to research finding an item to sell, mainly because most or all of these requests were from old-timers who didn't know if they needed it or not, they just thought they needed it.

This motor swap took me close to a year. I would kinda like to drive it a few weeks before tearing into it again. Doing a water pump on it is going to be like building a ship in a bottle.

Ugh. I wish there was a magic seal rejuvenation pill. I picked up a DRZ 400 that sat for years and got it all cleaned tank, jets, fresh oil, etc... fired up... and took it for a ride yesterday. As soon as it got up to temp - poof. Coolant everywhere from the old rubber water pump seal. DOH. At least I didn't have to push it far.

What happens is the rubber sticks to the shaft and tears the first time it is spun.

The trick is to spray WD40 or some other lube into the weep hole when stored and when brought out of hibernation before spinning.

This will greatly improve your odds of having a usable pump.

Waterpump time. Might as well do the HFH, HFHOE while you're at it. All 3SGTE mandatory service items any time the engine is out. Sorry :(

bentwrench wrote: What happens is the rubber sticks to the shaft and tears the first time it is spun.

We found out that a certain high profile company that deals with high performance modern transmission swaps for older cars does not grease the seals when assembling a transmission.

So I got to pull a transmission out of a show car (IIRC the paintwork alone on the car was $100k, so padded EVERYTHING when hoisting/jacking/disassembling, practically had to wrap tape in all of my sockets so as to not mar any bolt heads) because somebody didn't wipe two cents' worth of grease in a multi thousand dollar transmission. The input shaft seal was burned up so bad that there was a ring of melted rubber stuck to the input shaft.

Ug. I was hoping. I guess it's ship in a bottle time. There must be a good half inch clearance, so easy, then. Not having an Esprit around has really spoiled me on wrenchin' projects.

In reply to Knurled:

I would like to believe that particular transmission company received a stern talking to via phone call.

If the 3SGTE is as tight to do the water pump on as the 5SFE I feel very sorry for you, but I would imagine all the turbo gear makes it way harder. Good luck!

It's the only engine I can think of where the timing belt replacement is the hardest part of doing a head gasket.

Well, the correct part number (according to the JDM Toyota EPC) is 16110-79135. I can get one out of Dubai for around a bill on eBay. However, this auction: eBay says that their part is compatible with the -79135 and a bizillion other S block motors, like all of them, near as I can tell. O'vatoZone says that a Camry 5SFE, RAV4 3SFE and MR2 3SGTE all have different part numbers. So, should I roll the dice and try a generic O'vatoZone pump for a Camry or get the exact Toyota part from overseas?

Also, the JDM EPC says the 1994 JDM MR2 and 94 Celi with the 3SGE all use the -79135, but the US EPC doesn't recognize the part number.

I heard oatmeal works.

In reply to Dr. Hess:

Any job I do that I don't ever want to do again gets the best quality parts available. New OEM gets my vote every time unless there's a uncorrected known fault in the OEM part.

In reply to TGMF:

In my DD's, I agree completely and that is what I do. However, this is not a DD. It is now a toy, border-lining on "stoopid." I think the replacements at like O'Reilley's should be OK, if I can find the right one.

Digging further into it, it looks like "the right" part is the front half of the pump only, and the variations are in the back half bolted to it or not. I am thinking that if I got a 5SFE pump set, I could take it apart and use the front half.

Good news! The water pump is OK. I had a loose (Lotus) hose clamp. Tightened it up, no more leak.

Now to figure out why the AC compressor isn't kicking in....