Water pump backing plate thickness?

Long story short, the water pump backing plate is missing off the engine I bought, and I may have stuff laying around to make one.

Two questions...

How thick is a stock plate?

Could one be fabricated with flat plate?

I see the originals have a round indent for presumably better impeller flow. See question #2...


Yea, I know.. i could buy a new one, but it would only cost me 4 times that to make my own.


Thanks

I think a flat plate will hit your impeller.

cool40 wrote:I think a flat plate will hit your impeller.

Other than electric pumps and compensating for other pulleys, how do the (flat) front engine mount plates work then?

I very quick glance at my WP,  it appears... flat.

Put a flat piece of something on it and see if the impeller clears!

You can use an extra gasket between the plate and pump so it doesn't contact the impeller however, you still need to have about a 1" indentation in the middle so it will clear the shaft; you could grind the shaft lower.

Some pumps already use a different plate with a smaller diameter protrusion like the Edelbrock and Ford Racing pumps because the impeller is smaller.

Ive been doing more searching. The closest i found for a dimension of thickness is "bigger than 1/16", smaller than 1/8".

How about sheet metal gage? 16 or 18 would seem about right i would think. I hate to assume.

I reluctantly called the local salvage yard today. I about busted a gut when he told me $50. Oh, gee, only $20 if i remove it?

Ill admit...I'm frugal. Ok, fine..cheap, but still!

My options are narrowing to Summit, Jegs, etc, Ebay, or my local Ford Stealership.

Or...fabricate one.

All the time i have into researching this, I could have bought 3 brand new ones by now. Yea, im funny like that.

Thanks again for replies

You can buy the proper replacement plate pretty cheap

https://m.summitracing.com/parts/fms-m-8501-460bp?seid=srese1&cm_mmc=pla-google-_-shopping-_-srese1-_-ford-performance-parts&gclid=CJfby_P1g9ICFQGpaQodbKwBZQ

I have 5 OEM waterpump plates that I was intending to list for sale as a "Lot of 5."  All of them are solid, each of them has been bead blasted for inspection, then painted for corrosion protection.

$55 shipped in the US for all 5 if you are (or anyone is) interested. Will not separate.

Paul Kane wrote:I have 5 OEM waterpump plates that I was intending to list for sale as a "Lot of 5."  All of them are solid, each of them has been bead blasted for inspection, then painted for corrosion protection.

$55 shipped in the US for all 5 if you are (or anyone is) interested. Will not separate.

Paul, thanks for the offer, but i don't really need 5 of them. I dont suppose you'd mic the thickness on one for me?

I have some stainless steel sheet that may work but short of doing a dry run crank/alt/WP pulley mockup and a guess, I'm not sure how close I'll be.

I found the 'new' Ford part number to be C8SZ-8508-A. The dealerships here had no clue on the M-8501-460BP number. Their computers only go back to 1980. My 460 is from a 69 Continental.

Thanks!

56f100guy wrote:

Paul Kane wrote:I have 5 OEM waterpump plates that I was intending to list for sale as a "Lot of 5."  All of them are solid, each of them has been bead blasted for inspection, then painted for corrosion protection.

$55 shipped in the US for all 5 if you are (or anyone is) interested. Will not separate.

Paul, thanks for the offer, but i don't really need 5 of them. I dont suppose you'd mic the thickness on one for me?

I have some stainless steel sheet that may work but short of doing a dry run crank/alt/WP pulley mockup and a guess, I'm not sure how close I'll be.

I found the 'new' Ford part number to be C8SZ-8508-A. The dealerships here had no clue on the M-8501-460BP number. Their computers only go back to 1980. My 460 is from a 69 Continental.

Thanks!

The C8SZ is the original 1968 dealer part # which is still a good number. M-8501-460BP is the Ford Performance Parts number.......it's the same part.

Lem, thanks for the confirmation.

I called my local Ford dealer back with that number and it...worked.

I gave in.

Its actually -under- the price what i would have had to pay for online with shipping, and I'm helping to support local business. Its 2 miles from my house, and I'll have it Saturday.

As goofy as i am I'll probably still make one. That one other custom part nobody will know is there but..me.

I have to give myself some credit though, I may be cheap, but i knew when to say when. The money saved to time invested was surpassed 2 days ago lol. I tend to overthink things. Ya think?

I'm done with the bottom end. This is now my hold up on the front end.(?) New Cloyes timing set, and had chased and cleaned all threads and surfaces, got Felpro gaskets, i kinda realized why...why so many water pump gaskets?!

No %#!@$! backing plate?! Thats why.


So close.

That's the up side to a local Ford part.....the shipping from Ford to the dealer is included in the price.