Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Looking for method to thread water pump heater hos

On my Chevy 250, I need to get some threads into the lower heater hose port... the one located at about 10 o'clock on the water pump, just above the lower radiator house port.

The plan, at present, is to grind inside the port to get it nice and clean/grindy. Then take an appropriately sized face washer (a face washer is a brass fitting that has NPT fittings on the inside and outside, like a bushing, but no hex shoulder... it's just threads... and because it's NPT, it's "sided"), and after masking off the inner threads really well, pookie-ing the hell out of it with America's favorite... JB Weld, and plopping it in the hole. Once dried, I'd have NPT threads to work with.

I've used JB weld before for "fixes" as cheesy as this, but I thought I'd run it past some experts (at cheesiness ) before going this route.

Does anyone have a better solution they'd like to offer up? Does anyone have any objections to this solution?

Why can't you just tap it with a pipe tap.

Tapping it with a pipe tap is certainly the best solution, but you want to be careful not to over tighten the fitting you install. Use a good pipe thread sealant and snug it up. Much tighter might split the pump casting and ruin your new pump. Don't forget to use some oil on the tap, they work better that way. Good luck.

Tapping with a pipe tap is exactly what I have done recently. Then you can use any # of fittings in it. Tom

Normally I do not use lube for tapping cast iron,but here are some lubes for cast iron tapping.
http://books.google.com/books?id=VkEYAAA...n%20oil&f=false
MBHD

I would ream it, mike the ID, and turn a brass NP nipple down to press fit with a .0005" / .001" interference. Chill the fitting and use Lock-Tite Cylindrical Part Bonding Compound at assembly.

Good for life.

Take a look at the marine applications. I have a water pump on a MercMarine engine and the heater hose outlet is cast but not drilled out. I was going to use it as a factory heater delete pump on my 63 Nova.

I recently used a tap for this and it worked great. I've put 2K miles on the engine since I did it and haven't had a failure or leak. It took less than 10 minutes with the pump off the engine.