FatHack, help. 351c water pump/front cover?

[Jeem]

My water pump took a dump. Pulled it off, the sheetmetal front cover is still attached and gasket (block to sheetmetal cover) appears to be in good shape and the paint on the block is perfect surrounding the plate. That tells me, I think, that I should be able to leave the plate alone and put on the new pump. Now, if I must take off the plate to put on the block to plate gasket, looks to me, I'll have to take off the crank pulley and dampner to get the plate off! Huh?! The new pump came with 2 gaskets; pump to plate and one for the plate to block. Only thing is, the plate to block gasket is only the size of the pump and the plate itself goes all the way down and around the crank pulley.

I REALLY want to leave the plate alone.

Finally, can I ditch the gasket, one or both, and just use ultra copper? I have already used it on the thermostat housing with good success. I remember a post about ultra copper and don't remeber if anyone used it solely (without gasket) on a water pump

Muchas Gracias,
Jeeemy

[Radshit]

Let's see...I did this once...to put in a gear drive....


leave the plate alone ..if you can......otherwise, pull the balancer and while you're at it, replace the front seal........and if the engine has some miles....replace the timing chain...that's what I do when dealing with a used Ford......helps it run a little better...

[Jeem]

Thanks Radshit,
Met your boy at IC, he seems like a good kid, he'll learn lots from Steve and the gang. Plus he's not a loudmouth punk.
What about the ultra copper shit? Is it cool to only use that stuff in lieu of the gasket?

[Fat Hack]

No need to pull the cover just to replace the water pump. You can use the gasket supplied, or a bead of ultra copper if you wish. I use the gasket with a VERY THIN coat of blue rtv most times.

Just don't mix up the water pump bolts...they're not idiot-proof like small block Chevys...they need to go back into the holes they came out of since some are different lengths!

Check for slop in your timing chain by taking the distributor cap off. Turn the engine over in one direction with a breaker bar and note distributor rotation. Then, turn the breaker bar in the opposite direction and see how long it takes the distributor rotor to start turning the other way. The longer it takes, the sloppier it is. A few degrees of slop won't hurt, but if you gotta spin the crank a quarter turn to get the rotor moving again, you need a chain!