water pumps
- Thread starter av8paul
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37 Coupe
Well-known member
I was told one time that no Ford engine came with the Ford script on the pumps but that they were a Genuine Ford replacement for 37-48 Fords and Mercury . Was also told that they were acceptable for V8 Club judging,at the time anyway. These replacements might have been way later like 50's or sixties. Again what I was told by a V8 club judge a few years ago.
Lyle
Senior Member
Are the water pumps mounted in the head on the 37 I have 4 Flatheads 50-53. A few days ago I bought a Rat Rod with a 36 (so the seller said)I am looking for water pumps or a place to get them rebuilt. I have 2 extra ones that came with the car in a junk box. The pumps on the engine are not leaking yet. I just like to be prepared just in case I need to replace one of them.
jdl
Well-known member
JM 35 Sedan
Well-known member
Tom, I noticed that this is your first post on the new Ford Barn. Welcome back. I always enjoyed reading your posts on the old barn. John
Lyle the 37 engine could have the pumps on the front like a 59 A and have 37 21 stud heads with the water outlets on the center of the heads. A 37 engine could also have 36 heads with the water pumps on the front of the heads. This requires diamond shaped blocks off plates that cover the large holes in the front of the block where the 59 A type pumps impellers would be. The two top bolts that held the pumps on hold the plates on. Also a bottom water inlet motor mount combination like the 36 is used. It is also possible to run 4 water pumps on a 37 engine, both the 36 and 59 A pumps. Skip did this on his 37 engine in a 34 P/U but this has no real effect on cooling that we noticed. It hasn't been run on the road yet so the real effect is not known. If anyone getting Skip to rebuild their pumps and has extra ones give him a call and he will give you money off your rebuild costs. Or he also buys pumps outright he needs to have some on hand if he breaks one he is rebuilding for someone which is his responsibility not the customers. G.M.
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JM 35 Sedan
Well-known member
Lyle, On a stock 21 stud '37 (& early '38) engine the WP's are mounted in the front of the engine block, in the same basic location they are mounted until '53 in the USA. Now the '37 and early '38 21 stud engines would accept the earlier style '32 to '36 21 stud heads with WP's mounted on the front of the heads and then use block off plates to cover the WP holes on the front of the block. This allowed Ford to service the early '32 to '36 V8 vehicles with a '37/'38 short block. So, if your rat rod engine has WP's in the heads and no block off plates, it is a '32 to '36 engine. J.M.
Henry/Kokomo
Well-known member
If two pumps are good, four must be better! Even if it doesn't help cooling, it's clever. You'd also have redundancy in case of pump failure. . . . .
Henry pumps don't fail in not pumping water, the impeller would have to come off or the pulley become loose for this to happen. Of course they won't pump if the shaft stops turning but in this case the belt would start to smoke in a few seconds. Pumps with bushing very rarely lock up, the bushing types usually leak water due to a bad seal mainly caused by dirt and crud clogging the spring. In 10,000 pumps we have only seen a few bushing type with real bad shafts and I can't recall one that was locked up. The strange thing is if a bushing type pump is run without grease or oil the hardened shaft is what shows wear and not much wear in the bushing. Low melt temperature grease is required in the head mounted pumps and only a few strokes of the grease gun once a year. This grease melts and the heavy oil saturates the bushing making a film of oil between the shaft and bushing. The shaft runs on this film of oil not touching the bushing unless the generator is jacked up with a pry bar squeezing the oil film. They don't want a lot of grease forced in getting in the coolant. On the 37 to 48 pumps the oil is gravity feed through a hole in the block into the water pump housing and into the bushing. It is important the hole in the block has air blown through it to make sure it is open and only a thin film of grease is required on both sides of the gasket to seal it. One guy used RTV and plugged the oil holes on 2 sets of pumps before we found the oil hole plugged with silicon. Bearing pumps on 32 to 48 pumps are subject to failure and they will lock up and need to be changed on the spot or the car towed. They could last for years or months. On 32 to 48 pumps when bearings are installed the pump seal is to close to the bearing seal. The supper hot water from the friction of the seat and seal distorts the bearing seal and water gets in the bearing. This may not happen for 1,000s of miles but I wouln't have bearings in my early Ford pumps and drive over 100 mile from home, that's as far as AAA will tow. 49 to 53 pumps are a different story the front snout on these latter pumps are longer and the water is thrown off before reaching the front surface of the bearing. Attached is a photo showing the effect of water on the shaft and bearing. You can see on the original 49 bearing the errosion of the 5/8" shaft and how the water was thrown off before getting to the bearing, this bearing still turns free. The 39 or 59 A type bearing shows how the water covers the face of the bearing and is locked up tight due to the lack of distance between the pump seal and bearing face. G.M.
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