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It blows me away that you project guys really go through all that. I really am impressed!

Kev,

I can't add much that the rest of the crew hasn't already said.
SO congrats on all the hard work!
Your job is OUTSTANDING - better than new. This old Packard is Proud!

Enjoy!

DanL

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I really do appreciate it.

Well I ran into a SNAFU yesterday with the Clipper. I decided to fill the cooling system before I went any further, and after I got 3 gallons of 50/50 mix in the radiatior, I noticed two leaks. First leak was from the lower radiator connection to the transcooler. The sheetmetal ends on the transcooler are not that great, and I was hoping to get by with them for now, but it looks like I am going to have to either have new ends brazed on at a radiator shop, or try source a better 51-54 transcooler to replace it with.

The other leak is the more pain in the butt. It is leaking from the lower edge of the waterpump. It didnt leak when I got the car, so I think the process of cleaning, degreasing and derusting the block must have free some crud that was pluging the leak.

So as soon as I can, I will have to pull the radiator core back off, and pull the water pump and replace the gaskets. I belive I bought a set of gaskets for this awhile back just in case. On the positive side, this give me a chance to pull and clean the water distribution tube. Better I found this out now, then when all the front sheet metal was back on.

So one step forward, two steps back. If anyone has a 51-54 Ultramatic transcooler in good shape for sell, please let me know as I am in the market for one.

On a better note, I won the following sign on ebay for $50! It's a smaller reproduction, but will look just great on the garage wall.

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Well I got home from work today and decided to tear into the waterpump leak. So off came the radiator core, the fan and the pulley.

The pump is leaking in the area marked in the first picture. So I removed the pump from the block. I think it is leaking in the lower corner near when the pump back plate screws to the body. Also the gasket between the pump and the block is a rubber gasket. If this normal? I thought it was a supposed to be a cork gasket.

So with the pump off, I figure it was a good time to pull and clean the water distribution tube. It took me awhile to pull it loose. I guess 50 years of rust and gunk gets things pretty well stuck.

So out came the tube. I guess it was a good thing that the pump was leaking and as such allowed me to clean the distribution tube as the rear 4-5 inches of the tube were completely clogged with rust scale and dirt. I would imagine that cylinder 8 was getting reduced flow compared to the rest of the cylinders.

So I flushed out all the grim clogged in the tube, and cleaned it up. I also back-flushed the block with a garden hose while with everything was open.

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Kev,

Gaskets for my '38 and '41 were made out of 'paper' gasket material, but don't know about your '54. I'm sure "Gaskets by Kev" will be able to handle whatever's required regardless. And now you'll be able to paint the block behind the pump too!

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Looked at a McCord set and their gaskets black but appears to be paper.

Thanks for the info guys. I am pretty sure I have the some waterpump gaskets somewhere that I bought last year from Best Gaskets when I was ordering some gaskets for a few other things.

Tomorrow I will attempt to take apart the water pump itself so I can swap out the body to back plate gasket. The bearings still fill good, no free play, but I will also check the impeller to make sure everything is ok while I am in there.

Hopefully by the weekend I will be back on track and have all the parts reassembled to where I was before.

So I got home from work and decided to jump in and get that pump apart. The first screw came out pretty easy, the bottom screw where I suspected it was leaking from was "one" with the pump body.

I tried just about everything to loosen than screw. Finally I went around the cover with a razor blade to cut the gasket and then rotated the cover around the screw. I did this a few times until the gasket around the screw broke down, and the PB-Blaster soaked in enough that the screw came free.

So anyway, it was pretty rusty inside. I clean it up the best I could and flushed any scale out of the pump and from around the impeller. I blasted the back cover and hardware, and use a wire wheel on the pump body. The impeller apprears to be made of a solid piece of steel or cast.

Tomorrow or the next day I will get it all back together.

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Water Pump 2, BigKev 0

Well the demon waterpump was not done with me. Now that I replaced all the gaskets it was no longer leaking from the back plate. Now it is leaking from the bottom slot on the pump body snout. I think the shaft seal is bad. I guess all the scale that I flushed out of the pump body was keep that old seal from leaking. The car had been sitting since 1986, so the seal I guess is toast or the shaft is pitted. The more I turned the pump, the more it would leak. I guess I need to send it out for a rebuild.

Who is the best place to send it to?

Kev,

If you know someone or someplace that has a press, you could have the seal pressed out, a new one pressed in, and that would probably be the only part of the rebuild you could not do. Unless, of course, the shaft is pitted. Then you would need a machine shop.

Just a thought.

Tom