Looking for advice, I'm building a 59 ba motor using 4" Merc Crank and later 8ab cam and timing chain cover. My question is can I use the later 8ab pumps on the early block? The reason being is that it looks like the early pumps pulleys will interfere with the 8ab style distributor
Peruse all of this and then post your question on Fordbarn. using 8ba water pumps on a 59ab block - Search (bing.com) Keep in mind that the direction of thrust for the 8BA cam is different from that of the 59AB cam. Also use the correct timing cover.
If I remember right, someone made pumps for the 59AB using the top mount distributor, it might have been Flathead Jack?
Here is the modification I used on my 40 Ford coupe. I used an 59 L block but switched to the 8BA cam and distributor. You can check out the engine build on my thread. The water pump article starts on page 5 post 126. The ad res for my thread is at the end of today's post.( A 40 Ford Coupe for Uncle Mike ). Hope this helps. Of course there always other ways to accomplish this.This modification has worked for me for the last 6 years without any problems. 19Fordy, I have never heard of this direction of thrust thing. Could you please enlighten me...us? WATER PUMP MODIFICATIONS: Uncle Mike wanted to run the 8BA style MSD electronic distributor on this engine instead of the crab style used on the 59 type engines. I initially installed the early 59 style pumps on the engine but soon discovered that there would not be enough clearance for the fan belt. Not the best picture but you can see that belt would have interfered with the distributor. So I ordered a new set of 8BA truck water pumps from Bob Drake. The first thing I noticed is that 8BA have and extra water outlet to the block that the 59 style pumps do not. You can barely see the drill punch pointing to the extra water outlet extending past the block. So the decision was made to plug the extra port. The plan is to drill out to tap size and put a pipe plug in the hole. I think this pipe plug size was 3/8" I use this stuff on most pipe joints and especially any time fuel or oil are involved. Holding one of these pumps in a vice can be problematic I finally used this idea of inserting a bolt through one of the holes and clamping the bolt in the vice. You would not want to apply too much torque to this arrangement because you could brake the cast flange off. The plug needs to be filed of flush with the pump sealing face. This pump gets the pulleys out where they need to be for the alternator. As usual each change you make seems to cause another part to need a modification. You can see a an aluminum pulley to the right in this picture. I had buy that pulley to work with theses water pumps. This modification also changed the alignment requirements of my alternator bracket. I will cover that modification next. Some times I think I should have just found an 8BA engine to build for this car....... Note: Well it looks like I got a picture out of order here.... editing is difficult after you make a post on here as they do not let you see the photos in edit mode and the pictures are assigned different numbers. Oh well I tried.
Thank you everyone that took the time to respond and help. and a special thank you to The 39 Guy for sharing your great tech article, fantastic response!
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