After a few weekends of fiddling with the distributor and reading post after post regarding setting TDC, timing and getting my rebuilt 235 to fire for the first time I actually made a breakthrough today. With a quick push of the start button she fired up and ran on her own for a good 5 to 10 minutes with some minor distributor tweaking. Forgetting all the troubles I've had I actually relaxed for a second and had the nerve to think to myself, "It actually works!" That's precisely when coolant began POURING out of the water pump....I should've known something would happen! I guess my next project is draining the coolant and pulling the water pump but what is the likeliness that it's a gasket issue and not a water pump issue? Its a fresh motor so I'm hoping the builder didn't use an old/faulty water pump...
I hope so. Im thinking it may be worth replacing it anyways to be on the safe side.. Guess I'll try NAPA and see if they can save the day again!
Just got a good look at it when I took the radiator cap off. Relieving the pressure allowed the coolant to leak without the motor running. The leak appears to be coming from directly behind the pulley, and not from the area around the bolts where the gasket would be..Does that seem normal?
You think that could be caused from some serious backfires I had when I put the dizzy in 180 out? I just replaced my intake and exhaust gaskets due to leaks and I saw plenty of black soot around the ports from the backfiring.. I wonderif the pressure fom the backfire messed up the seal? maybe its all related