ford water pump question

i am replacing the water pump in my 65 falcon. the motor as far as i can tell by matching up the bolt pattern and outlet comes up as a 68 302, simple enough! the question i have is that the old pump had one gasket and no backing plate, the new one has 2 gaskets and a backing plate. the old one was aluminum and the new one is cast iron. the old pump doesn't have a brand name to lead me to believe it is a high flow but the impeller on the old one has blades with a plate style back (on the actual blades) as the new one has just blades, hence the need for a backing plate. so is it just that simple- a kragen generic versus a different brand? i'm not worried about it working, just curious about the difference. i have a 3 core radiator, flex fan, an auxiliary electric pusher fan and a nicely fabbed aluminum shroud so cooling should be fine. thanks ahead of time for your insight, stevo

 

it's not just you,not even FORD can keep up with all the **** they keep changing! my nephew has a SBF powered mulletstang,i have personally seen SBF gasket kits come with 3 different water pump gaskets,all shapes and sizes.it doesn't make any sense to me just be glad none of the bolts were rusted.i hate removing the timing cover and drilling the ****ers out

 

The real worries to check with unknown combos like it sounds like you've got - is the inlet on the correct side and, more importantly, does the pump turn the same way? Check that the impellers are facing the same way. May seem silly, but the 302HO introduced reverse rotation & aluminum pumps. Just want to make sure you don't have one of those on your hands. Although I gotta admit, only ever seen really early engines without the pump backing plates (special timing chain cover too)....so I'm confused too.

Can you find the casting numbers on your front cover?

 

The early Ford small block (pre-66) have no metal cover on the back, which exposed the impeller. The problem was after time the water would eat a hole in the face of the timing cover and water would get in the oil.
In 66 Ford changed this system to prevent this problem. They changed the timing cover slightly and went to a cast iron water pump that used the metal plate on the back, with it's own gasket. This kept the water away from eating a hole through the timing cover.
If I read your post correctly, it sounds as if the motor in your car now is a 68? Maybe a 68 long block that has the original timing cover and water pump installed?
If you have the waterpump with no cover and they gave you one with the cover, or vise versa. They will not interchange unless you change the timing cover to match.
Hope this helps.