Thread: SBC water pump

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Now that I have my rebuilt engine back from the shop it is time to put the accessories on. I bought the block, heads, intake, carb and sheet metal, but no water pump or other fittings. Since the engine "was" a '76 Corvette engine I bought a water pump for a '76 Corvette and now I need pulleys. The harmonic balancer is an 8" added by the engine shop. What is this business about short or long water pumps? I went to buy some chrome pulleys from a catalog and found over 20 different combinations and the prices are such that I do not want to buy 10 to find a combination that fits. I'll bet some of you know just what to buy. I may add an AC later so I guess I need a crank pulley with three grooves (water pump, alternator and maybe later an AC. The water pump I have looks like a short unit (I guess) since it backs up close to the cam gear cover and looks like it lines up for a pulley just slightly beyond the nose of the harmonic balancer. I am hoping it is a short water pump to fit into a '29 Ford engine bay. (If it is long, I might as well put in a Windsor 351 and the long water pump was one reason I did not chose a Windsor!) "All" I want to know is what pulleys to buy.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don,

A short water pump is about 5--3/4" from the block face to the face of the pulley mounting flange.

The long water pump measures about 6-7/8"

Well Thanks. If I ever get this car together I will try to visit Henry Rifle who is after all not that far away. After measuring, I do have the short waterpump and there is a Chevy agency just up the street. I tend to avoid the agency due to outrageous prices there but maybe I can use their knowledge at the parts desk as Streets suggests. (Their price on a Goodwrench 350 was/is $2600, over $1000 more than several agencies with free shipping!)

Don Shillady
Retired SCientist/teen rodder

If you contemplate the serpentine route you'll have to get another water pump as they have reverse rotation compared to the "standard" unit. Also, I'm thinkin' the serpentine unit doesn't come in a short pump, only the long configuration.

Wait a dern minute. Shillady sounds like an Irish name. There are no snakes in Ireland, hence a serpentine system will not work on an Irishman-built rod. There's simply no frame of refernce.

QED & IOTTMCO

If you ordered the 76' vette pump, its a short design. That was one of the differences between the vette and other Chevy engines of that era. I have a '78 monte with the long pump which is pretty much standard for those old engines.

I was wondering though, what brand pump did you buy?

I recently put an Edlebrock victor series on my monte, and I have to say it works great and really does keep the rat cooler. A must here in florida, in the summer, with the a/c going.

Thanks for your comments. The pump was purchased from Advanced Auto and has several languages on the box, so it is not a GM part, but it is "new" not rebuilt. I can't take it back anyway because I have painted it "Chevy Orange" to match the rest of the block. Tomorrow I will visit some junk yards on the week end and hope to find or at least look at the set up of pulleys for water pump and alternator as the basic setup. Funny how I can visualize the various setups for flathead pumps and generator brackets but have no knowledge of the SBC setups, I guess life was simpler then at least under the hood!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientis/teen rodder