Suppose this is a replacement water pump?

[Cazman]

'68 300, 440
The rest of the motor is the usual turquoise, but this water pump is red. I am going to put it together as close to stock as I can. This motor would not have had a red WP from the factory, would it?

 

[cbarge]

There is another thread regarding the engine colors...
Obviously that water pump was a used one installed at one point.
Make sure you get a correct pump for your engine .
There are different pumps for cars with and without A/C.
The difference is the length of the snout and number of impeller blades.

For the water pump housing,you can get re-pop heater hose fittings.
Hope this helps.

 

[CBODY67]

At the engine plant, the water pump housing and the pump insert would have been on the engine when it was painted. Not sure why they would have pulled the pump housing rather than just replace the pump insert?

On the different number of vanes on the pumps, a/c to non-a/c . . . there is a particular coolant circulation speed that's optimum. The pulleys on the engine (water pump) had different diameters for a/c and non-a/c cars. The "less vanes" a/c pump ends up spinning a bit faster than the "more vanes" non-a/c pump, as it all works out. BUT for drag racing, where power consumption can be an issue, the "less vanes" pump can go places it otherwise wasn't, for that reason.

Some replacement pumps, by observation, had impellers that look more like the fan on an alternator, not smooth vanes as might be suspected.

Good luck with the restoration!
CBODY67

 

[Cazman]

So much information on this site. Thanks again.

 

[furious70]

there's a thread on moparts that I think actually references forBbodiesonly that has tons of different pumps from different vendors and compares them. Even these days, the parts house reman pumps have been all jumbled together - even tho they ask a/c or no a/c, the pumps in the box is anyone's guess now.