New Harmonic Balancer & Water Pump (weird sound??)

Just had a new waterpump put on, while they had it apart they put on a new harmonic balancer.

I've noticed since that the engine sounds different from in the cabin. It drives fine, no problems, but I hear a gurgling sorta sound, very faint, in the background noise, that I don't remember... It sort of sounds like the exhuast on a Grand Am with the V6...you know that common sound to all GM V6's...?

Would a new balancer make a "new" noise? Is it possible to put it on wrong, and through things out of whack?

I'll take it back if I think they did it wrong, just want your guys thoughts!

Thanks Amigos!

OH, and it only does it when I'm using the gas, at idle...nothing...

Is it just a sound or is there any vibration? Do you hear it when you rev it up in P/N or only in gear?

IMO it's not easy to install a harmonic balancer [/i]incorrectly[i] on this motor and if you actually do, I reckon there will be more to speak for it than a noise you barely notice.

Natesriv wrote:

Just had a new waterpump put on, while they had it apart they put on a new harmonic balancer.

I've noticed since that the engine sounds different from in the cabin. It drives fine, no problems, but I hear a gurgling sorta sound, very faint, in the background noise, that I don't remember... It sort of sounds like the exhuast on a Grand Am with the V6...you know that common sound to all GM V6's...?

Would a new balancer make a "new" noise? Is it possible to put it on wrong, and through things out of whack?

I'll take it back if I think they did it wrong, just want your guys thoughts!

Thanks Amigos!

When you said Gurgling sound and new water pump, all I could think of was the cooling system has some air in it and needs to be bleed.
It would make sense also that you only hear it while driving.
Worth trying to bleed any air out, it doesn't take long.

Rickw wrote:

When you said Gurgling sound and new water pump, all I could think of was the cooling system has some air in it and needs to be bled.
Worth trying to bleed any air out, it doesn't take long.

Absolutely!
After I flushed my system, I heard gurgling from the center of the dash. I figured that the heater core is too high to purge properly, so I parked the car with a warm engine on a good uphill slope, vented the Lev-R-Vent radiator cap into the recovery tank, and ran it with the cap off for awhile. No noise since.

If you don't have a Lev-R-Vent, you could do it with a cold engine too, but if you don't see a good burp within a couple minutes, you'll need to put something under the car to catch the coolant as it expands...

Or, you get the engine up to temp and loosen the vent screw in the thermostat housing and see if you can get some air out that way as well.

That's true... The kicker is to get the nose of the car up so the air can get out of the dash.

I do have a Lev-R-Vent... do I lift the red lever and that releases pressure??

What do you mean vent into the recovery tank?
Should I take the cap off, after venting pressure, and let it run for a bit. My driveway is a pretty good slope, so that may help.

Noise comes from around the accessory belt area, but can only be heard from inside. It's not a gurgling per-say...but a background growling sort of sound,which was NOT there before the latest work... I only hear it when I'm driving,at idle, nothing, give it more gas and it's louder, but never hear from outside....

Temp is fine, no other items, drives fine...just that faint background growl/gurlge....

All those symptoms still sound like it's air in the heater core. When you rev up, the water pump revs up, making more turbulence. Plus, you said that the "Noise comes from around the accessory belt area, but can only be heard from inside..." If it was really coming from the belt area, you'd be able to hear it under the hood. But as far as your ears are concerned, the heater core is on the same "heading" as the belts, just closer.

As far as the cap, yes, you slowly lift the lever to release the pressure, and most all the overflow will go into the coolant recovery tank on the driver's fenderwell, rather than onto the driveway. When the pressure is released you can lift the lever all the way up, and press & turn the cap to take it off. Then just hold the engine at about 1500 RPM for a couple of minutes, close and seal the cap, park the car and hose down the dribbles that made it to the ground.

I don't know how steep your driveway is, but at a guess I'd say that the street outside my garage is about a 15* slope...

Remember, always purge/open a radiator cap with the engine running. The pressure is higher immediately after shutdown.

(Had to try out the new 'teach' icon... )

Okay, I put the car on the ramp, on the driveway..major slope!

Took cap off, and let it run for awhile... purged it a few times....went out , came home, and lifted lever again..heard bubbles in overlow tank...cool!


HOWEVER! I'M NOT SURE IF THIS IS A LEFTOVER FROM THE WATERPUMP BEING UT ON (SLOPPY MECHANICS) , BUT THERE WAS COOLANT POOLED IN THE VALLEY BETWEEN THE SUPERCHARGER AND THE UPPER INTAKE MAINFOLD....SH_T!!! SO I HOSED IF ALL DOWN AND DRIED IT OFF, WILL DRIVE CAR FOR A FEW DAYS...IF COOLANT REAPPEARS THERE (FAR FROM A HOSE, OR WATERPUMP) THEN THERE'S A CRACKED HEAD OR SOMETHING...

IF THAT'S THE CASE...THE RIV WILL BE GROUNDED FOR GOOD...POSSIBLE PARTED OUT...

COULD NOISE BE A CRACKED HEAD? NO SMELL OF OIL IN COOLANT TANK...NO WEIRD SMOKING....JUST NOTICED PUDDLE TODAY..WILL KEEP EYE ON

leaking upper or lower intake gasket?
now, i cant remember why you had the car in the shop, but unless the car massively overheated i doubt you cracked the heads.
chances are it's just from the WP install, but just watch the level and look for pooling.

Don't be so quick to assume a cracked head or something and the need to part it out. Stay calm.
A cracked cylinder head is very uncommon to begin with and any cracks in the cast iron head would be internal and cause a leak internally so you would be burning coolant and smell it out the exhaust. You would not have coolant pooling on the intake area.
You've done the only thing you can do for now, which is clean up the area and watch closely for a couple of days and report back.

Yep. When I R&R my supercharger snout I left some of that nice-smelling SC oil on the engine. A couple 200+mile hiway runs did not evaporate it. Finally got it off with Gunk original engine cleaner and a wet/dry vac with blower attachment. Follow label directions with teh Gunk, then after hosing engine blow off the moisture with the wet/dry and a nozzle. I have a blower nozzle but frankly, a "reducer" from 3" to 1-1/2" would work just peachy.

Albertj

Nate, it sounds like you didn't bleed the air out of the thermostat housing yet. It's part of refilling coolant, and lets trapped air out of the upper heads/intake manifold area. That will all eventually work it's way out, but it's better to help the process along by way of the bleeder screw on the thermostat.

i recently had it on the wheel ramps on the slope of the driveway... ran it and opened radiator cap. also DID loosen the screw on the thermostat top and fluid did come out. I also drove it again and looked for coolant on engine again...nothing...probably fluid from last time was when they changed pump.

If it's still there Saturday I'll take it back and have them look at it...It's not a huge deal...and car runs fine. just would like to have it sound like it did before...

but I agree, I don't suspect a cracked head...it sure appears it was just sloppy installation and the coolant puddled in the little valleys behind the spark plugs...

but I'll keep my eye on it.

I'm not clear at this point...

The "leak" is okay, but the gurgle is still there?

yeah, no leak...but it's NOT really a gurgle...it's a warbling growl almost...rises and falls with engine speed...but it's definately not supposed to be there..

UPDATE: Car is back at shop..told them to fix it.... Driving there, sound was clearly heard...a rotating/warbling sort of sound...a spinning sound...could be a bad waterpump...who knows....but it's not coming home until it's fixed! Lucky I have two cars.

I'll update when I get it back!

Okee dokey.

I'd say maybe a pump, more likely a belt that now has some dirt or coolant in the grooves, except for that part about only hearing it inside the car...

Hey! Did you ever check the steering fluid level after getting the car back from the water pump job? They could've allowed fluid to leak out while the pump was unbolted to do the other work.

I took it straight back..however...the thought did occur..."Am I low in fluid somewhere?"...didn't get time to check.


Took if Friday pm...nothing yet... I'll let her stay for a few days before I call for update...

I wonder if a defective waterpump could do that....

I'll see what happens....

Just got back from shop. Mechanic wanted me to show him, and we looked together.

We took off the S/C belt and the serentine belt and started car...no noise...Put s/c belt back on...no noise (a little noise from S/C..there's a small bit of slack there..) but no noise like before...

So...they're going to put a new waterpump on (another new one) and I think I'll have them change the idler pulley behind the engine mount..that needs changing too..

They'll call me when it's ready. Till then I drive my other toy...

But man, I miss my smooth Riviera!

Good deal.

While it's apart for that miserable job, I'd make sure that both tensioners are in good shape and have them replace both of the lower/rear PIA pulleys... Plastic versus steel I don't know, the opinions seem to be split.

Eldo wrote:

Good deal.

While it's apart for that miserable job, I'd make sure that both tensioners are in good shape and have them replace both of the lower/rear PIA pulleys... Plastic versus steel I don't know, the opinions seem to be split.

IMHO plastic vs steel is almost a tossup, I lean toward steel. WHen my plastic pullies have failed they frag and send shards all over the place. One time shredding a belt and the other time not.

Steel tensioner pulley 'failing' did not get to point of failure but I noticced the belt would not track right on the pulley anymore so I replaced tensioner thinking the spring had finally weakened after 200+ K miles. It had not - what happened was the bearing inthe pulley was worn and not holding the pulley straight. FOund that out because the tensioner was stuck on the engine so I tapped the pulley with a hammer to 'ease' it off and wouldn't you know, the pulley moved sideways on its axis. I could tap it into/out of line with the hammer. I installed the new tensioner anyway but bought new pullies for the old one, which I will install after I clean it off with some Gunk.

Albertj

Well, I noticed (awhile back) that my s/c belt is not straight when it's in the OEM location using OEM pulleys. The pulley on the tensioner had the belt just off to the side...just a hair (I posted a topic on this awhile back)...you guys said (and were right) that it would slip off...it did.

So I had modded the belt by moving it over one notch on the harmonic balancer. That wore down the raised portion of that little part of the belt, but it was straight after that...

They put the new balancer on...and a new tensioner pulley and the belt is still just off a little bit... So I don't know if the tensioners are out of perpindicularity just a little or what....

Hmmmm

It's possible the balancer isn't seated all the way... ? You'd have to put a straightedge in there and use it to figure out what the offending pulley is.