Hi

Having had some overheating issues with my -66 Mustang, and realizing the cooler was partly blocked, I decided to do a conversion to a staggered cooler and swapping for a coolant pump with the inlet on the drivers side, rather than on the passenger side as is original on the early Mustangs. This conversion is recommended by someone who call themselves badasscars. They say they do it all the time and that it is just to swap for a 70's 302 pump instead, with the inlet on the drivers side. It'll fit right on they say.

We'll, I was stupid enough to follow their advice, just to find out how wrong they were. They can't have tried it even once.

1. The pump interferes with the cast-in timing pointer, can't be fitted at all.
2. The hub height of the new pump is 5.7" compared to 5.42" on the old. Hence, the pulleys get misaligned, won't work at all
3. The bracket for the power steering pump doesn't fit at all.

That's what I noticed so far.

In any case, now I have the new cooler, and the new pump, and all these issues from this really bad advice, from the bad-advice-guys that I was stupid enough to believe in.

Any suggestions on how to make this work? Are there parts out there that will actually make it work?

A water pump pulley to adjust for the hub height difference? Or is it an alternative to adjust the crankshaft pulley (shim it 0,28"), as well as the generator and power steering pump then?

A bracket I guess should be available to make the power steering pump fit the -70's version. MIght need a change of the generator bracket as well?

The clash between the pump and timing pointer I have found a solution for, some material can be removed off the pump to make it work, without causing any side effects.

I guess I could make the whole setup same as -70 302, right? But what parts do I need to swap to make it work?

Thanks!

 

keep your new cooler but put on a new coolant pump that is original style for the 1966 with the v8 289.


you can then find hoses (which maybe a bit of a trick) that will fit the cross flow cooler and the oem style coolant pump.


I run something very similar to what you are talking about I had to use two different hoses on the bottom and cut the ends I needed and use a large thin wall piple like brass and couple the two pieces together to get the shape i needed.


You could try a flex hose as well and just bend it to shape

 

Yes, using the original pump and work out some cross-piping is an option, and probably what I will go for short term. Still interested to know though, about the possibilities to fix it with the new pump

 

I agree with most of this, with the exception of the FLEX HOSE. I don't like flex hoses as they take too much tension to bend and put undo stress on the radiator goose-necks. IF you use a pipe to connect the 2 ends, it's pretty easy to find the right bent hose for each end.

 

simplify your life and forget the new water pump . do not try to reinvent the wheel unless you really want to.

you can get flex hose with a stainless cover . this stays formed pretty well . just zip tie it to the lower support in the center.