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Posted by: bondo Dec 6 2006, 12:45 AM

I call this my Flux Capacitor because "It's what makes an LT1 in a 914 possible".

In case you don't know, an LT1 is very much like a gen I SBC. The main dinmensional differences are the intake manifold and the water pump. The intake manifold issue has been solved (flipped 180 degrees). The water pump was trickier. It sticks out of the front of the engine enough that it just won't fit.

An LT1 water pump is a strange beast. It bolts to the block, and is driven off the camshaft. An LT1 is reverse cooled, so cold water is fed to the heads and then goes to the block. Instead of the block having one port on each side where the water pump bolts on, it has two. The top one is the inlet, and feeds directly into the head. The lower one is the outlet. The water pump has an integral bypassing thermostat. Instead of blocking the flow until the engine is warm, it continuously circulates the coolant through the engine but bypasses the radiator until the thermostat opens.

I wanted to keep the reverse cooling and the bypassing thermostat, so I put a commercially available electric conversion on the pump and modified it for relocation to the front trunk (details in another thread somewhere).

The part I just made uses the flanges off the old water pump and allows hoses to be connected to them. It's designed to fit into the vertical divot in the middle of the firewall. It sticks out less than the crankshaft pulley. I will probably end up with the engine a little farther back than in a "normal" V8 conversion, but that's why I made a cable shifter... I can put the engine wherever I want.

First, pics of the new part:





And this is what the stock water pump looks like on the engine:

Posted by: TonyAKAVW Dec 6 2006, 12:50 AM

Nice! Needs to be anodized black to match your other aluminum parts though.

-Tony

Posted by: McMark Dec 6 2006, 12:59 AM

Cool stuff. Isn't having a TIG around handy?

Posted by: bondo Dec 6 2006, 01:15 AM

YES! Unfortunately I was only able to tack it together at home due to breaker limitations (30A). I had to do the real welding at work. But now I'm about 100x better at welding aluminum than I was before I started.

Posted by: bondo Dec 6 2006, 01:16 AM

The flanges are not an anodizable alloy so it will get powdercoated instead.

Posted by: jkeyzer Dec 6 2006, 11:15 AM

Great work bondo!