STICKY: 2006 Commander Hemi 5.7L Waterpump change and flush Write Up

did this over the weekend I figure I would do a write up,

got the parts from

http://www.jeepoemparts.com/2006-jeep-commander-parts.html

very cheap prices for oem and they combine shipping,
things like ignition switches that are 50 at the local dealer are around 30 on here, I needed a headlight cover and it was 6 bucks, cheapest ones on ebay were 18.00


So I ordered the pump for 110.00, and a mopar Tstat since it was a few dollars more then a offbrand at oreillys.

for coolant I picked up 2 gallons of distilled water and 2 gallons of full strength Zerex G-05, it is not red like oem but works.

Drain the radiator by loosening the petcock valve on the driver side, you do not have to remove the petcock, just turn it so it starts draining, removing the petcock makes it difficult to put back in.

take off the air box and air tube off the throttle body, there is one bolt holding this down to the left of the throttle body, lean it over the engine. Undo the plastic clip holding the 2 ac hard lines. put a ratchet on the tensioner and remove the belt. my jeep did not have a sticker of the belt routing so I drew a picture of how it goes.

Put a large container under the motor to catch coolant. the pump has 10 bolts, start at the top, I took a piece of cardboard, laid the new pump on it and drew dots on the 10 bolt holes. then when I removed the bolts off the motor, I stabbed the bolts into the cardboard, since they are not all the same length.

The black pipe that goes into the upper right hand of the pump has a bolt to the block, take that bolt off, and the pipe lifts up, it is only held in with a oring, it does not move alot, but enough to give you room to work. Remove the clamp from the lower coolant hose going to the waterpump.

oem clamps are not the best to keep reusing, so instead of taking off the clamp and hose at the tstat housing, I just took off the tstat housing and put the hose to the side by the battery.

Orient the new tsat in the new waterpump the same way the old one was.

For the coolant flush, I did not want to pull freeze plugs or anything, so I took my wet shop vac, and I have a clear hose and metal brake line taped to it, I use this to suck coolant out of the 2 holes in the block, and the overflow bottle. This will probably get 90% of your coolant.

Next, use Emory cloth and take 30mins to clean the machined engine block surface so it is very clean. At this point I also cleaned the throttle body.

Spin all your pulleys that you can just to check for any bad bearings and noise.

you have to remove the tensioner and idler pulley off the old pump and put them in the new pump. I did this after the new pump was installed so I would have extra room to weasel the pump in thru the ac lines.

the stock bolt on the idler pulley I believe is a torx 55, you will find it after you pop the plastic round cover off. this bolt strips very easily, and mine did, and the pulley was a little noisy, so I went to the dealer to get a new bolt and new pulley. the new bolt is redesigned and is a regular bolt, not torx. the bolt was $7 and the pulley was $23 (6 dollars more then oriellys but made alot better)

Now, install the pump onto the motor. slowly tighten all the bolts in a star pattern, then for the final tightening,I used a inch lb torque wrench, it calls for 18ft lbs, or 216in lbs. The center long bolt that holds the clip for the ac lines also has to go back at this point.

Next, reinstall the idler pulley and bolt, and the belt tensioner, then the belt, and close the petcock valve.

Now, start filling the radiator with a 50/50 mix, once it gets full, open up the allen head plug on the face of the waterpump, this will let the air out and let you put more coolant in, I closed and opened the plug about 5 times until I could not put in more coolant. Also fill the overflow bottle, but not too much. The Min line is the level it should be when the motor is cold and the Max line is the level when the motor is hot. The middle of those lines is a good medium and the dealer drew a blue line there for reference.

Reinstall the air box and vacuum hose to the air box, at this point I also changed the air filter and the PCV valve which was gummy.
While I was in there I used a $5 harbor freight pump to suck out the dirty power-steering fluid and replaced it with 3/4 quart of PS fluid only from the dealer, I didn't want to mess with disconnecting the lines for a full drain.

While you run the car and check the coolant, check for leaks anywhere by the pump and hoses etc.

Feel free to add anything I missed, I will try to add some pics later.

-A