Hey guys,

As I am getting things together to rebuild my Olds 350, i can' help but notice that my old and new water pumps look very different. I saw that AC and non-AC cars had different heights to them. Will this part be useable or will I have to get a different one? It said it was good for any Olds V8 on Summit, so I didn't really researxh past that at the time.

Thanks,

-Mike

 

You definitely want to use the correct "height" water pump and matching pulleys depending on whether or not you have A/C. Also, the diameter of the inlet changed between 1970 and 1971. You want to use the proper size for the radiator and hose you plan to use.

But I'm confused by your picture. The inlet to the pump is the big snout. when mounted on the engine, it points to about the 8:00 position. The inlet on the shiny new pump in your picture looks placed correctly. But the inlet on that old pump would be in about the 4:00 position when mounted on the engine. What's up with that?

 

The engine and car in general appear to be more and more Mickey Moused with every layer i peel back. Would it be better to get the pulleys that match this high flow aluminum pump or get a pump matching the height of the incorrect pump that came with the car? The pulleys aren't in great shape but are useable. I got a new timing chain cover and it looks like the water pump will fit correctly on it. I've taken the engine apart except for the bottom end so I have room to change things just not looking to sink a ton of money in with all I've already invested. Thanks for the reponse!

 

The old water pump is a 1964-only pump with the driver's side inlet. This only works on 1964 engines that have the timing tab on the passenger side. The other pump is a 1965-1990 pump with the passenger side inlet. You must use the pump configuration that goes with your engine and chassis.

For the 1965-1990 pumps, there are also three different heights. If you are using this style pump, you MUST use the pump height that matches your pulleys and accessory brackets.

 

The car is a 64, I was under the impression the engine came from a 71 because the heads had a 7 cast on them. I believe the components were all just slapped on. The car ran when I got it but when I started pulling the engine apart I found some bent rods and a stuck valve. The heads are sitting at a shop waiting their turn to be redone. Are there any charts that break down pulley sizes so I can see what I'm working with? I think the crank pulley is non-AC but the water pump pulley is from an AC set up.

Thanks again,

-Mike

 

Well, no matter what year engine it is you need the lower hose nipple on the same side as the radiator outlet, otherwise you are going to have some serious issues connecting the water pump to the radiator.

Also, I don't know for sure about the '64 but the early (70-older) engines used a larger hose nipple than the 71-later engines. You can get a sleeve to put over the radiator fitting tomake the hose fit.

 

So reuse the old pump seems like my best option then, the only reason I was replacing it was for a higher flow version. I can't find one of those for a 64. Would using a lower temp termostat be a good idea with the stock pump?

 

First, all 1964-1990 Olds V8 blocks are identical on the front cover and water pump interface. You can bolt a 64 pump to a later block with no issue. You MUST use the balancer and timing tab from the same year of pump, however, as the 64 pump puts the timing tab on the passenger side and thus the scribe mark on the balancer for TDC is in a completely different location. If you are using a combination of parts, it would be very smart to verify the TDC mark on the balancer when you put it back together.

Due to the one-year-only design and limited market, I'm not aware of any high flow pumps for the 1964 configuration. If the radiator is in good shape and you have a 16 psi cap, a 180 deg t-stat will be fine. Did you have a problem previously?

 

Hey Joe,

I think that the radiator is good but can't say for sure. I only drove the car around the block once before tearing the engine apart. The oil was milky so I wanted to nip that in the bud. It looked like the coolant was getting in around the timing cover, there was no oil in the coolant. The themostat is a 160 degree from the same company as the pump, Milodon. Because of the rarity of parts, I will just bolt all the stuff that was on there previously back on; pulleys, balancer, hoses. I'm having the heads redone and got a cam replacement kit from Comp Cams K42-221-4. Is there anything I could easily overlook that will result in disaster when I put this all back together?

 

Since you have a 1971 block in a 1964 car, you need to double check everything that was different from 64 to later years. As I've pointed out, water pump, timing tab, TDC marking for starters. I assume the heads and valvetrain are later model as well, so you aren't dealing with the no. 1 heads and the shaft-mount rockers unique to the 1964 330 motors. And the 1964-67 cranks have a different flange bolt pattern than on the 1968-up motors, so flexplate needs to match but since this engine was already installed and running I assume that's correct.

Bottom line is that the 1964 cars and motors have some one-year-only parts and you need to understand which of those are necessary to swap onto a later motor and which are not.