water pump mystery

[Don Coatney]

Should you be able to see water flowing through the water inlet at the top of the radiator when its running?

thx

I can see water flow in my radiator looking through the cap with my engine running. However the water pump is only part of the cooling system. As long as you are removing the water pump you should consider removing the radiator for cleaning and a flow test and the water distributon tube for inspection and possible replacement. And as long as you are that far into the project remove the welsh plugs from the side of the block and flush out all the crud.

[Reg Evans]

Don, I don't have the water pump off any of my engines right now but I noticed from the photo of your old external pumps that the new ones have an extra hole just below the water dist. tube.

Napa online has a new pump listed for $71.50.

http://www.napaonline.com/masterpages/NOLMaster.aspx?PageId=470&LineCode=NWP&PartNumber=55713&Description=Water+Pump+-+New

If no one has a photo of an internal bypass block I'll pull the pump off my spare 53 Plym engine today and post a photo.

Chucky07....can you post some photos when you remove your pump?

[chucky07]

sure thing..i'll post them this evening when i'm done installing....

I already had radiator cleaned ..but. do you really think i should try to get water distribution tube out? sounds like it could be another gas tank nightmare to me..and what are Welsh Plugs and where are they located and how do i remove..and once i remove what is best way to clean them out?

kinda new to this forgive questions..

thx

[Reg Evans]

OK, I found a photo of the front of the block on the internal bypass engines. Found this photo in Allan Faust's photo bucket. Thanks Allan !

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v395/joker77/Engine%20-%20Drivetrain/?action=view&current=head014.jpg

What are Welch Plugs you ask? They're also known as freeze plugs or frost plugs. Here's a welch plug ralphing up rusty sludge buildup in the block that could be contributing to your overheating problem. Drive an old screwdriver into the center of one of yours near the back of the engine on the drivers side and see what ya find in there.

[chucky07]

Ok heres my old pump and the block where it was attached....

Taking out my radiator...the drivers side support came off..It's obvious it was jb welded or some cheap epoxy....

I called a welding shop as we have no Radiator repair shops within 100 miles of this god forsaken town and the old welder guy said it needed to be soldered....Is this the kind of solder i have here with my sodlering iron?

Would be nice if I could do some of the repairs as they come up (which is daily) before I go broke ahahaha....

thx

[55 Fargo]

Okay now that your here the water dist tube is in the half moon hole, pull it out and lfush this block as I had mentioned before.

Take the rad to Bakerfield or LA or San Bernadino, get this rad boiled out, cleaned tested and they will do the soldering of the support.

Once the tube is out, if brass or in real good shape you can use it again, clean it out, then remove a couple of the lower freeze plugs and flush this baby out.

This is of course up to you, any other advice some of the guys amy come up with.

Let me know ho it goes, and will try and help you as you progress. I don't mind driving over to help, but 2000 miles is a bit much for the weekend, heheheheh..........Fred

[chucky07]

will do...gonna pull out distribution tub e right now...thx for tips much appreciated...will send off rad monday morning...

[Guest oldcarguy]

Dennis Carpenter sells those Ford battery trays. It actually recesses into the firewall at the bottom.

[Guest oldcarguy]

expand on "pull it out" as the description of removing the distribution tube. Mine won't budge. Any tips?

[Jim Gaspard]

My pull was similar, wouldn't budge. There are numerous posts on this issue in P15-D24 Forum Tech Archives. Go here:

http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=695

It's mostly sludge and crusty rust that is holding the sleeve in place. When I finally got mine to budge ever so slightly, I just kept working at it and it finally broke free. I could not believe all the crud in the tube and wonder how the water ever flowed through the engine. Good luck.

Jim in Dallas

[chucky07]

Here's a photo of the two different head gaskets Merle mentioned. The one on the left if for the later engines with the internal bypass (maybe 53 and later). What is your engine number?

ok i have the bump on the front of the head..so i have a internal bypass system? if so..which thermostat housing and pump should i use...very very very confused....really don't want to damage new engine when i fire her up.

Oh and according to my enginer numer its a 51-53 which would make it correct as i have a 52 truck.

thx in adv.

[Young Ed]

If you have the hole in the head and block for that water passage then you have internal bypass. In which case you need the stamped steel thermostat housing and the water pump that just has an attachment for a heater hose with the hole in the back to match up to the block.

[Merle Coggins]

Chucky,

Maybe you'll want to re-read this thread on water pumps. It'll either clear things up or confuse you more.

http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=6316&highlight=WATER+PUMP

[jschultz]

When I bought the parts for my 1950 engine (T172) I got the gasket for an external bypass setup, but my engine has the internal bypass. Mr. Bernbaum argued with me that I couldn't have a 1950 engine because they didn't start using the internal bypass until '51. Apparently I am an idiot and don't know what I'm looking at, according to him. I finally gave up and let him win the argument, but not until I got him to exchange my head gasket with the proper one. I've also run across this same thing when I tried to get a water pump at my local Checker Auto Parts. I had to go to a '51 listing to get the internal bypass pump. I have no reason to believe that my engine is not the original engine in this truck, but it seems confusing that everything lists up thru '50 has external bypass and '51 and up are internal, yet my '50 is internal. Also, the 1950 B2C parts truck that I have also has the internal bypass setup. Apparently the trucks switched to internal bypass before the cars did, but because there are more cars out there than trucks, the public opinion is that they didn't change until '51. That's my opinion anyway.

Merle

My 51 parts book says that they changed the gasket in 50 starting with engine number T172-100903 is part #1326318

Part#1117542 is for T172-100902 and before, was different gasket. I assume that is when they went to internal from external.

If you need I can scan page 265 and you can win the argument.