Cooling a V8

I don't know a lot about sports cars of that era, but I know what I like when I see it, and sure I do like those three beauties. That gaping oval grille is great. I think the expression on the face of the moustachioed fellow in the last pic says it all! Sounds like you have a great job.
Back to water pumps. I've never had one in pieces. Why does the nose(?) of the pump in my P6 extend so much further forward than the pulley wheel? Is it so as to put the mechanical fan as close to the radiator as possible? Can that part of the pump be 'shortened', similarly to what you've done, to save more space between engine and radiator?
Looking at all those various Aston Martins at Snetterton, I just noticed that curiously placed old telephone box! Noisy place to try and make a phone call, surely!
 
The casting nose on the waterpump is necessary to house the bearing assembly. I cannot see it being able to be shortened. Yes the pulley is made to put the fan in the right place.
 
Finished this today.
Shortened the pump shaft by 11mm, turns out I could have left this alone. The front of the viscous fan is exactly the same distance from the rad as the steel, I could have gone a little closer.
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Inserted a small roll pin to pin the two parts together.
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Yaaayee !!!
Had y'all for 5 days before getting caught. Sorry just my warped sense of humour :p
There are no prizes for saying ' ya forgot the pulley as well ' cos I don't have a spare to put on it.
 
OK I have read various threads on uprating the cooling of a stock V8 car but an still wondering which way to go on fans.
I have installed a header tank and also a recovery bottle so the header is always full and higher than the engine.
The fan choice is one area I still cannot nail down.
I dislike putting electric fans in front of radiators, I would much rather have one behind in a proper cowl. I have had to lean my radiator back a little to clear the bonnet structure so have even less room than normal so cannot fit one behind.
I read that the export to Aus models used a 13 blade plastic fan on a viscous coupling, is this setup available ?
It must surely be a compact unit to fit.
The only other way I can think of doing it is to take off the water pump, fit a blanking plate and have a remote electric pump but that is getting more and more complicated.
Or am I stuck with a front mounted fan ?
BTW I have the stock steel fan at the moment.

Whadya think.
hi cobraboy, when you fit an expansion tank do you just put a blank in place of rad cap then the pressure rad cap on the expansion tank.
 
The pump for the 13 blade fan with viscous is ERC2810, and rare as can be - currently looking for one myself - one went off on ebay UK recently for over A$500. I also prefer electrics behind the rad, as they are more efficient according to my reading. Seeing as I have previously adapted an SD1 screwed on (LH) viscous and fan to my 928, I am exploring doing something similar with a GWP310 as these are readily available. - hence my query re the water pump shaft dia on a GWP310. The LH threaded boss for the viscous coupling is a press fit on a 5/8" dia shaft. Problem with a GWP310 is I dont have a pulley that fits one of these, but maybe they can be found?
 
Hi there gripper.
If you have an expansion tank that has a pressure cap fitting then yes, you use a blank cap on the rad, and your normal pressure cap on the tank. You then only part fill the expansion tank to allow for ...... expansion.
I must say that I have moved away from the expansion tank since going over to Evans waterless coolant. It is a long story !!!!
After breaking into the cooling system for work it is surprising how long it takes to get all the air out again. I jack the front of the car up and fill the rad, then with the engine at 3000 rpm fill to the brim and slam the cap on.
The other thing that hinders bleeding is if the stat does not have a jiggle pin at 12 o clock, this make it very difficult to bleed.
Any way, with the Evans I just have an over flow bottle and a double seal rad cap, I fill as described and have about 1 1/2" of coolant in the overflow bottle, with the pipe going below the fluid. The rad stays full and the coolant goes back and forth as required.
I wanted to run zero pressure in the system, but needed to make up a 5 lb cap to get it to work well, now it gives no trouble at all.
 
Excellent news, thanks. The LH threaded part will go straight on there. Now to get a GWP310 (with pulley) and start tinkering.
 
You wont put a thread on that shaft I'm afraid, its as hard as a hard thing from hardsville.
 
The P6B water pump is available under a number of part no.s GWP304 is the standard non-viscous one but removing the pulley/fan mount from the pump shaft allows it to be converted to the viscous, The part no for just the nose piece for the p6b viscous one is 603936. While the pump (sans nose) is listed as 603937. there were several variations of impellor, the best one being the SD1 version but I recall there are also differences in the bolt lengths required to mount the pumps. The '68 manual actually has repair instructions.

I fitted an electric fan back in the 80s but found that while it was ok at idle and puttering around a sustained flat foot caused the car to overheat, even at very high road speed. I also noticed the thing was on ALL the time so I replaced it with the Air con model of fan.

The later fanned pumps are available new, they are made in the USA I think for the buick/olds 215 and its offspring (they used the same front cover). I suspect they are made in batches as they disappear from view from time to time then everyone has them...

Note P6B viscous couplings are mounted to the rear of the fan while SD1 fans have the coupling out front.
 
"You wont put a thread on that shaft I'm afraid, its as hard as a hard thing from hardsville. "
Not going to try... If the measurements work out, going to pull the male threaded part off the shaft below, and fit it to a GWP310 shaft. As Mike says above, the viscous is on a different side, and the fan itself may be too big. The original P6B fan may fit somehow though.
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Mike - can you advise when and where you have seen such fanned pumps please?
 
I did not go electric out front because I wanted airflow through the engine bay when stuck in traffic. The reason being I removed all the insulator material from the bonnet for clearance reasons. The thought of all the paint peeling off over the exhaust headers was not appealing.
I have since glued on some foil faced heat shielding, but the viscous fan will still stay. It is not a massive horsepower robber so it seems.
 
Hi, Not all viscous couplings are equal, Some slip like a torque converter and won't go above a certain RPM. Some are temperature controlled and slip until a set temperature is reached and then lock up, they have a bi-metal coil spring around the hub. Sorry if this is preaching to the choir but I've lost count of the number of times I've come across this with people.;)

Colin
 
Quite so
I have an SD1 version, which I am led to believe is a limited RPM model, which is quite handy for me as I do like to hear the motor is working ;)
 
Good luck finding a 603936 . Have not seen that no listed ANYWHERE. No way to press it off as the shaft is in a blind hole.
 
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