My nephew and I are working to restore an 86 Iron Duke. The car had a serious coolant leak and we replaced the head gasket as a precaution because we saw green stains on the engine block. However, it seems the leak was from the water pump.
After replacement, we torqued the head bolts to spec, we made sure to follow the same order when inserting pushrods, and followed the copious pictures we took during disassembly.
There is a squealing noise at idle when the engine is started that was not present before. The sound seems to be metal on metal. We have not run it for more than a few seconds. Our current thought is something is not oiled as the belt appears to be turning freely.
Squealing is usually the result of a loose belt not usually related to a head gasket problem. Cut a section of hose and use it as a stethoscope to pinpoint noise.
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We’ll double check the belt. Some added context there. We replaced the water pump. The first water pump I purchased from Rock Auto accepted the OEM pulley but seems to be too tall. The interior channel of the pullley aligns with the AC compressor, not the alternator.
I bought a second pre-pressed water pump that seems to be the right height but I’ve heard somewhere anything other than the OEM water pump pulley can cause problems. Am I on a possible right track?
While the engine was off for the part replacement, your battery would have drained more than usual, putting a larger load on the alternator upon first startup, furthermore, the belts hate coolant, if they get coolant on them, they can squeal more easily, and it is a horrid sound haha.
The 1984-1986 model year Fiero 2m4 used a V-belt pulley... which was the absolute worst design I think anyone has ever seen. It was dramatically improved in 1987 with the implementation of a serpentine belt system, which used a belt tensioner. Unfortunately, the engine block itself was modified to accept the belt tensioner in 1987, so you can't simply upgrade to this. My daughter and I are in the process of upgrading to a serpentine system (minus the tensioner), which should be no worse (slightly better with more contact patch) to the 84-86 V-belt system.
As you can see though, the biggest issue is a lack of contact patch on the crank pulley... but again... it's no worse than what was stock on the 84-86 Fiero.
It's common for them to squeal / slip... even the slightest bit of pulley misalignment can cause the belt to slip, and as someone above me said... you get coolant on those belts (and the pulleys, and it essentially puts an oily glaze on it.
My advice is to replace the belt entirely... but before you install the new belt... take some brake cleaner and spray down all of the pulleys... and THEN install the belt. There's a little slot in the bracket that the top of the alternator attaches to. This is meant for you to be able to put in a crow bar so that you can get leverage to tighten the belt enough before you tighten it.
If you do this... you shouldn't have any other issues.
Sorry for broken image links, will redo them shortly.
I'm able to open them if I do "right-click, open in new window." Easiest thing is to use the UPLOAD media button at the bottom.
But either way, did you replace the belt with a new one? The old belt would have spread coolant all over the pulleys, and coolant includes some kind of oil for lubrication of the parts as much as it does for cooling. Follow what I said in my post above (brake cleaner, new belt, tighten it, etc.)
Removing the main serpentine belt removed the noise.
We’ll replace the belt, douse the pulleys in brake cleaner and go tighter.
How much play should a fully tightened belt have? It’s not clear from the Hayne’s.
There's probably a technical specification for this... but to be completely honest with you... generally you make it as tight as you need to until it stops squealing. But with a new belt and clean pulleys... it shouldn't need to be crazy. You don't want to get so aggressive that you damage the bearings of all the accessories... but I will say this... there is a crow-bar pivot hole just above the alternator for good reason.
I think the tightness should be 1/4-1/2" deflection either direction in the center of the belt between the alternator and water pump, just going off my (notoriously bad) memory, that would be something the ogre probably has a spec to.
We leaned into the alternator with a crowbar after spraying the pulleys down with brake cleaner. Engine is running and belt spinning with no squealing. Thank you everyone for the tips on this!
