water pump on a v6

my 1989 Firebird with the 2.8l V6 has sprung a leak in the water pump. I have narrowed it down to a faulty gasket. Rather than pay a mechanic $200 to fix it, I've decided to do the repairs myself. About how long is this going to take and how much of the stuff is going to have to come off the front of the engine. I realize i'll have to get the belt off, and probably some other things. On a scale from 1 to 10, how hard would you rate this repair? Are there any special tools required other than a good set of wrenches?

Nothing really special.. btw since you are replacing the gasket, replace the damn pump itself.. only 20 dollars anyway.. also you're going to not just take the waterpump off, but the power steering thing that sits to the driver side of the engine will be taken loose.. not too hard of a job takes only about 4-8 hours if you're lazy..

I second replacing the pump .... or in a month when your doing it all over again you'll curse .... been there did that ....

wrenches, sockets will speed things up if you have some laying around, wire brush to get the old gasket off, gasket scraper (puddy knife) to get the gasket off. nothing else is jumping out at me ... if you have to remove the fan (which I think you will) take the 4 bolts out of the fan before removing the fan belt (it will help to keep the fan from turning on you).

good luck & I estimate 2-3 hrs if you've wrenched on cars much

Yeah, found that the pump was bad anyway, so i've ordered a new one and i'm putting it on over the next couple days when i get time. Until then, get to drive a toyota minivan.....lucky me.

Success. I got my new pump on flawlessly. No more leaking.