I've always used gaskets and RTV. My old '27 roadster keeps spitting out water pump gaskets and some fellas are saying I should not even use a gasket, just use RTV? The engine is a 5.0 HO Ford.. I know it's off topic, but I am a Chevy guy with a Ford motor in one of my hot rods and I am looking for some advice from ya'll. I've considered a SBC swap, but that seems drastic when the only issue is a water pump gasket. The gasket that keeps failing is the one that is between the sheet metal backing plate and the water pump housing. Here is a photo, you can see the pesky gasket failure at the bottom of the photo.
By chance have you tried a different water pump? Reason I say that is on the 01 Roush I had they changed two different water pumps before they were able to stop the little leak it had. Just a thought.
Gasketing Maybe get some Gaska-Chinch shellac and coat both sides of the paper gasket and allow to tack up a bit before installing ? . I use this excellent product on a regular basis on fuel pumps etc. that don't suffer much heat .
Thanks for the advice fellas. I reassembled the Water Pump to the Engine yesterday. I modified a Fel-Pro 35380 Pump to Cover Plate Gasket to give a bit more width in hopes that will help prevent another gasket failure. I also made some stainless studs to plug the two tapped holes that are not used in the timing cover. Pump to Pump Rear Cover Plate Gaskets: P/N 35214 shown on left, P/N 35380 on the right: This photo shows the P/N 35214 on top of the modified P/N 35380. Notice this results in a little wider gasket in the area that has failed twice on my '83 5.0 Motor: The stainless studs I made to go into the two tapped holes: The location of the unused tapped holes. I coated the studs with RTV and installed them into these holes.: I used Permatex #765-3017 Water Pump Housing RTV on the gaskets and the stainless stud plugs. This grade of Permatex is stated to have Superior Water-Glycol Resistance. And lastly I modified a 1/2" combination wrench to allow snugging up those two lower back cover bolts. Getting the wrench into location is tricky, but it works. Wish me luck fellas...
Looking Good ! I'm not clear as to why you couldn't tighten those rear bolts before mounting the water pump..... I sure hope you wire brushed the inner sealing surface shown in pic # 3 ~ . That cavity looks like it was full of rusty water a while before you began working on this rig . I assume a Customer's rig ? .
