Thread: Water pump shims??

Tweet

I have an interesting problem. When I tried to install my Weland water pump on my 327, the water pump "arms"(the ones that are bolted to the block) do not make contact with the block. The base of the water pump hits the timing chain cover(aluminum). I grinded down the small bolts on the base of the water pump but still, no luck. Have any of you guys had this problem? It looks like some shims would fix the problem but I could not find any. It is about 1/8" from the block. Thanks

This is the problem we all run into when buying aftermarket crap. If you space the pump out, then you'll have to space everything else out to get the belts to line up. Take that POS cover off and sling it. Use a stock Chevy cover and powder coat it silver.

Just ran into this when switching my 350 over from long style water pump to short style. Luckily, my chrome timing cover cleared, but not by much. They asked me at Summit if I was using the original plastic Vortec cover when I bought all these parts, and I said I wasn't. So they said it should work,

To answer your question, Richard is right............your problem is the timing cover. Change out the timing cover for a regular steel one, even a chromed one, and it should clear by about a 1/4 inch or so.

Don

The thick aluminum covers will not work with a short water pump unless you use spacer, the as Richard said, none of the pulley will line up. Put a stock cover on and everything will be fine.