Any good ideas for water pump removal?

I'd like to hear any ideas you guys have come up with for removing a stubborn water pump on the LT1. I've tried prybars, a big deadblow hammer, and a good size steel mallet. I even tapped threads in a bolt hole and made a jacking screw. After doing all that it just stripped the threads and the pump didn't budge. I've done this job a few times before but it's been a really long time. I remember them being a PITA but not quite this stubborn.

TIA for any ideas. Back to the garage....

I had a problem with one car where the pump would not come off. I took a cold chisel to the ears on the pump where the locator pins on the block fit into. I split the ears to remove tension on the pins. Now I put a little anti-sieze on the pins when I replace a pump. I also put a small amount of silicone on each side of the gaskets to make clean up easier next time around.

What a freaking bonehead I am....... Just to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything (since it's been years since I've done this), I cracked open the FSM . Turns out there's six bolts, not four. What happened to that head banging against bricks emoticon, anyway.......

I have not taken these bolts out yet but I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to get this now...

Wow. That's kinda funny. Glad you found the bolts before you broke something. Do you still have the AIR pump in place?

Did the AIR pump delete years ago. Good news is that with all the banging and prying I did, the two outer bolts were already loose when I discovered them!

So the new one is in now with no leaks. Ready to go burn some rubber.

I put my hand on the water pump just a couple minutes after starting it and was surprised at how hot it was- it was too hot to touch. Coolant temp was probably not even 100°. Not sure if that's normal. I'll have to see what happens on one of my other ones tomorrow.

Did you bleed the system properly and add enough coolant back in? Dumb questions I know. I don't mean to offend. Easy to miss the simple stuff.

Also, in addition to my above comment, did you install the coupler from the old pump?

When I read the first post, my first thought was "Take the other two bolts out, Rob!" lol. We've all done it.

toomanytoyz wrote:

When I read the first post, my first thought was "Take the other two bolts out, Rob!" lol.  We've all done it.

HA HA....me too. Whenever things dont come off easy I look for those "extra" bolts