Robert
Banned
My 350 Chevy on my bucket still running a bit hotter than desired, so I broke down and bought a cast iron chromed supposedly "high volume" water pump from JEGS.
When the water pump came, I opened the box, inside another box that was labeled only "chrome water pump" (no mention of anything high volume).
Anyway, no gaskets included.
Went to my local auto parts guy, requested some thicker "rubberized" gaskets, he said all he had was plain paper and to use form-a-gasket #2 (thin coat each side).
I scraped all mating surfaces well with razor blade, applied gaskets coated both sides with form-a-gasket #2, waited 10 minutes, bolted it all up tight.
But when I started refilling the radiator coolant started leaking out the lowest portion of the intake side of the water pump out of the spot where there is an internal hole the same size as a bolt hole but no bolt goes there, argggggg !
Tried further tightening the bolts but no use, it still leaked.
So I tore it all down and did it all over again like it was done previously, with blue silicone only.
Unfortunately, I put a lot of blue silicone around the mating surfaces of that strange hole that has no bolt on the water pump intake side - - appears to me sorta like a relief hole.
Now I'm thinking that if that hole is plugged with silicone that could be affecting my water pump performance ?
I install submersible pumps for a living and should know better.
Seems I recall all pumps benefit from having a larger volume intake side and a bit smaller output side, that's probably the purpose of the extra hole drilled all the way through so coolant can bypass the pump cavity ?
Did I screw this one up ?
Feeling like I need to tear it back down again.
When the water pump came, I opened the box, inside another box that was labeled only "chrome water pump" (no mention of anything high volume).
Anyway, no gaskets included.
Went to my local auto parts guy, requested some thicker "rubberized" gaskets, he said all he had was plain paper and to use form-a-gasket #2 (thin coat each side).
I scraped all mating surfaces well with razor blade, applied gaskets coated both sides with form-a-gasket #2, waited 10 minutes, bolted it all up tight.
But when I started refilling the radiator coolant started leaking out the lowest portion of the intake side of the water pump out of the spot where there is an internal hole the same size as a bolt hole but no bolt goes there, argggggg !
Tried further tightening the bolts but no use, it still leaked.
So I tore it all down and did it all over again like it was done previously, with blue silicone only.
Unfortunately, I put a lot of blue silicone around the mating surfaces of that strange hole that has no bolt on the water pump intake side - - appears to me sorta like a relief hole.
Now I'm thinking that if that hole is plugged with silicone that could be affecting my water pump performance ?
I install submersible pumps for a living and should know better.
Seems I recall all pumps benefit from having a larger volume intake side and a bit smaller output side, that's probably the purpose of the extra hole drilled all the way through so coolant can bypass the pump cavity ?
Did I screw this one up ?
Feeling like I need to tear it back down again.