I am building a 1953 Flathead Ford engine and want to install the water pumps that have the base to accept the donut style rubber mounts. I do not care for the other style that has the two bolts at the base of the water pump. Easier for me to have the engine mount made to accept the donut style. The only thing I notice if I install the earlier style pumps the block has a small hole at the top for the water to enter this area of the pump. You can see from the picture the hole is not covered up by the pump as the other style water pump that were on the engine originally does cover up this hole you can see from one of the pictures the tip of my pen showing the area. I also want to run the thin style fan belt (3/8 )with the electric fan and to illiminate the original 3 blades fan. Another word I need the two water pumps to have their pulleys to be in line with the generator and crank pulley. I have looked on Speedway's catalogue to make sure I will be buying the correct pumps for my application the part # showing is 916-45108 is this what I need. Are these water pumps available with the 3/8 pulley or do I need to buy the correct pulleys and have them installed. Thanks Frenchy
i think that's a great idea. as for the holes, you can simply put plugs in them--many claim that keeps some hot coolant out of the pumps . as for the pulley setup, find one from a 49--they use the wide belt.
I installed a '53 Merc flathead into a '47 Ford passenger car chassis. The stock '49/'51 Mercury pumps had a mount built in the same fashion as the pumps you want to use, but the Merc pump mount 'arm' is higher up than the Ford version and would have required a spacer from the crossmember to the pump mount. What I chose to do was to use the 8RT pickup pumps, which match the openings in your '53 block, mount arms at the correct height, but have pullies for the wide belt. I wanted to use the narrow belts. I removed the narrow pullies from the Merc pumps, the wide pullies from the 8RT pumps, and put the narrow Merc pullies on the truck pumps. I did learn that you can't press off the pullies without a suitable support for the pulley. I took a piece of pipe, split it in two lengthwise, held it in place with a hose clamp and supported the pulley up around the hub instead of at the sheave while pressing it off. That prevented breakage of the cast iron pulley. However, the later pumps, Ford/Merc car '49-'53 and Ford truck 8RT '48-'53, use a two belt system, one driving one pump and the generator, the other driving the other pump and fan. Therefore the crankpulley has two sheaves and the pump pullies are offset front to rear accordingly. I am not clear what belt arrangement you have in mind. Since you apparently are fabricating frame mounts for the engine, you might consider using stock Merc pumps, with the higher mount arm, and eliminate the pulley switching. The problem in that scenario (there is ALWAYS a fly in the ointment), Merc pumps are not readily available new, so far as I know, but I'm sure used ones can be rebuilt by any of several shops. Post #2 above suggest you can use the earlier pumps on the later engine, but you will have to find a suitable pulley to use the narrow belts. Ray
50-51 Merc WPs have the narrow belt and the same belt setup as 50-53 Fords and have the pad mount . Will need a spacer though. 52-3 Mercs used the same bottom mount pumps as Ford. Probably the easiest way out is change pulleys on PU pumps.
Diameter and back spacing are different between the early 37 to 48 pumps and the 8BA family. Generally folks that convert to early pumps just convert the whole kit & kaboodle. 1939 standard car or truck stuff worked well and swaps over to the 8BA with some minor mods. If you want to change the sheaves to narrow types so you can use some of the 8BA family stuff like the crank pulley, you will have to find somone who can cut you two sheaves on a lathe for a press fit to match the diameter and match up your pulley grooves for all the accessories you are using. If this is for an AV8, you will have to consider a fan in the mix somewhere so that is a big factor with them. Generator mounted fan or an offset generator mount with a custom made central fan spindle on the intake location is the most common avenue to take for the confined space of an AV8.
The Jalopy Journal
