water pump working?
 

I have a 95 accord 4 cyl that started overheating. Both fans work. after bleeding and adding coolant several times, I decided to remove the thermostat and the upper rad hose to see if the water pump was even pumping water. I didnt think of feeling the bottom hose. anyway, I am trying to find out what kind of flow i should get from the water pump once the car is started and keeping the rad full. I am getting a little flow right now but it is not a steady flow. lots of steam. I dont know the history of the car, I just bought it.

What exactly happens when it overheats? Will it overheat immediately after filling/bleeding?

Roadre, I can start it and let it idle with no thermostat in it and rhe temp gauge will be almost pegged within 5 min. both fans also come on. It seems like it gets as hot as it can as fast as it can. It has been awile but I flushed the cooling system in my truck and it just seemed like i had alot more water flow from the water pump.

It's unusual, but I have heard of waterpump impeller vanes corroding away to nothing. I guess when you rule out anything easier, you should take off the waterpump & have a look.

Wow, five minutes, that's fast. If you don't know the history of the car then R&R'ing the water pump would be part of a timing belt job. Is the compression OK? It would be a shame to do the WP/TB and find out that there's something else wrong with the engine.

Overheat in 5 mins suggest possible head gasket leak allowing hot gases into the cooling system. Suggest a cold, leak test of cooling system to confirm internal leak.

good luck

Well I went out and looked at it again. filled it up,started it up and the only water coming from the top hose is the same amount of water i am dum ping into the radiator. So I guess that means its time to change the timimg belt. I didnt have any water in my oil and thats why I was looking at the pump. Im glad im not having to do the head gasket. I will let you all know the outcome. Thanks

Well sure enough, I got the pump off and the dand blades were seperated from the shaft that spins them. however I think I may have messed up. I removed the oil pump instead of the water pump by mistake. Can someone tell me what the gear inside the oil pump turns?

Maybe you removed the rear balancer shaft gearbox? That's OK, you just need to get a new O-ring and put it back on. Do you have a factory service manual? You should be able to find one at the Sticky: Common DIY and Info. Threads at the top of this forum.

Take a picture of your waterpump and post it in this thread. It would be helpful to others running into this problem in the future.

The oil pump is the whole front of the engine, #3 in the picture.

The balance-shaft sprocket is #1.

We need to know which one you're dealing with.