1969 Imperial progress thread

commando1 · Jul 1, 2020

I have not heard good things about what 440 Source sells.
In addition, I vaguely remember a mag test the flow of pumps and it did not fare well.

vdk2010 · Jul 1, 2020

polara71 said:
Pardon my ignorance but don't they use aluminum heads on iron blocks?

They do, but in my mind, there is a note that mixing cast iron and aluminum leads to increased corrosion. But I can't remember where I heard this.

vdk2010 · Jul 1, 2020

commando1 said:
I have not heard good things about what 440 Source sells.
In addition, I vaguely remember a mag test the flow of pumps and it did not fare well.

Do you mean the pump itself or the housing? I would have never thought it would be different from the stock pump housing.
I have a Mopar cast pump as well. The left one in the picture.

If mixing these metals is not a problem, I could use the aluminium housing with the cast pump, if the 440 source pump is the problem?!

commando1 · Jul 1, 2020

I was wondering if I was remembering correctly so I just did a Google search.
440 source water pump housing junk

65sporty · Jul 1, 2020

You should not have any problem using a aluminum housing with a cast iron block. OE manufactures have been using aluminum timing covers with cast blocks for years and aluminum intakes. The problem is most people never change the coolant and it will become acidic.

vdk2010 · Jul 2, 2020

commando1 said:
I was wondering if I was remembering correctly so I just did a Google search.
440 source water pump housing junk

I googled as well now and found out the oposite. The housing seems to be fine but the pump is junk.
I guess i will try it and see what happens.

Gary Grand · Jul 2, 2020

I have also that 440 Source pump and housing, but have not yet tested it. Casting of the housing looks good even on machined areas, so no porosity there.
Don´t know the pump then.. I´m going to give it a try.

Big_John · Jul 2, 2020

vdk2010 said:
I googled as well now and found out the oposite. The housing seems to be fine but the pump is junk.
I guess i will try it and see what happens.

You may have read this, but, as I understand it, this outlines the problem.
Overheating issue resolved....interesting read !

The issue may or may not have been corrected in newer castings, I'm not sure. I think the best way is to compare the old casting to the new.

IMHO, the only advantage in using this housing would be weight... and we're talking about an Imperial, so weight savings probably isn't critical. Unless you have some problems with the original housing, I'd stay with that rather than the new aluminum piece. It's hard to beat good old cast iron.

vdk2010 · Jul 2, 2020

Big_John said:
You may have read this, but, as I understand it, this outlines the problem.
Overheating issue resolved....interesting read !

The issue may or may not have been corrected in newer castings, I'm not sure. I think the best way is to compare the old casting to the new.

IMHO, the only advantage in using this housing would be weight... and we're talking about an Imperial, so weight savings probably isn't critical. Unless you have some problems with the original housing, I'd stay with that rather than the new aluminum piece. It's hard to beat good old cast iron.

That's what I've read, yes. And on page 7 or 9 or so, someone tested it and came to almost the same flow numbers.

I don't care about the weight, no. My original housing (which I would prefer) is heavily corroded, especially around the in- and outlet. That's why I bought another one. The aluminum one I have now is simply one I found here in Germany for a good price.

vdk2010 · Jul 3, 2020

I've put the original and the aluminum pump housing next to each other.

They are mostly identical except one outlet.

The big question is now if the extra space is needed there?!

Rustyrodknocker · Jul 3, 2020

vdk2010 said:
They do, but in my mind, there is a note that mixing cast iron and aluminum leads to increased corrosion. But I can't remember where I heard this.

You are talking about galvanic corrosion or corrosion by electrolysis . The same thing you are trying to prevent by having a cathodic coating applied to your car. These are issues I encounter in the piping systems industry. Many systems require some form of protection built into the system. I found an article written by a body shop owner. It's an explanation by a car guy for a car guy.
Pay particular attention to what he says about adverse ratios of dissimilar metals.

It reminds me of the scenario where a guys puts a chrome plated aluminium water neck on his otherwise completely cast iron engine. The little water neck is at the wrong end of an adverse ratio and corrodes rapidly until it fails.

Big engines that cost big money, especially sea water cooled engines have sacrificial zinc anodes that thread into the cooling system to protect the dissimilar materials. Would be unusual but could be applied to an old car.

As an aside, last year I witnessed extreme corrosion in a large direct bury system that I installed a decade ago. I was asked to verify some photos of the work. It was so swiss cheesed I could not believe it. It was in the courts as it was a multi million dollar impact to the institution.
Fortunately we were not part of that, it is sickening to even think about.
The system had a cathodic protection plan in its design. I personally installed a fair portion of it with my small 4 person team. We installed per design but as it turns out the calculations were off due to insufficient soil studies. The system was a couple thousand feet long and conditions can change greatly in that length. I don't know what the outcome was other than somebody chunked out a ton of money and a new system was designed and installed.

The body shop story. Good info and good story.

Galvanic Corrosion and Cross Contamination

vdk2010 · Jul 4, 2020

Wow, that's a lot of Information, thanks. I've read a lot of other stuff since then as well and stumbled across "Evans Waterless Coolant" . One of the Benefits of this stuff is that this stuff eliminates this Problem enterily. So I'm probably using that instead of conventional anti freeze.

OldWarHorse300 · Jul 4, 2020

I'm using 440 Source alu pump housing and pump AND Evan's for my 440 . Something like 4-5 years, no problems .
Regards
Mika

Kram Edyorloh · Jul 7, 2020

I've run an alloy water pump housing for 25 years both with a cast iron and alloy water pump from when I raced my RoadRunner, use pink or red anti freeze/coolant and not that Prestoline junk.
VW stuff is good. take both drain bungs out of the block to get all the remaining water out, its the only place there will be water left if you have the housing off.
I have 10 of these housings chucked in a pile, you cant give them away in the UK LOL