Suc-ky Luck!!

Water neck Leak:

Well, pulled off the chrome water neck tonight (outside in the dark) and cleaned off the lower intake outlet.

I bought an OEM water neck from D.A. It looked almost exactly the same as the chromer, but obviously, cast metal. I took a straight edge to the bottom and I could see how the cast one looked more perfectly flat. So I thought "that's the reason it's leaking."

I prepped the intake outlet, put the Tstat in with some BLACK RTV, let it sit...Then put a thin film of RTV on, then the gasket, the waited a few minutes...then put another film of RTV on...let dry for a few minutes...THEN:

When I went to put the bolts through to screw in the intake, the holes would NOT line up REASON, the piece on the left of the bypass hose was hitting up against the alt bracket (since the alt is moved from the blower)

SO NOW...Im sitting here with a prepped water neck with RTV hardening on it, and NOT able to get it on now so it can dry over night. Why are the most minor fixes the most PITA!!!

ONLY BRIGHT SIDE: I decided not to bother polishing it b/c I didnt have the patience....CAN YOU IMAGINE IF I HAD POLISHED THE WHOLE THING, THEN FOUND IT DIDNT FIT???

Oh well...Im F....g going to bed now
RC

Zach..Ill give it one more try today...Then Ill let you know tonight.

Yellow: Even though the after market one is not chromed, it does seem to be very strong and true..Last night when it didnt fit, I already had the RTV on it semi wet, so I couldnt do much with it..Today, Ill remove the dried RTV and see if I can grind down the one edge. IF that fits, it seems tight enough to stop the leaking...Keep in mind it wasnt a major leak, but for cooling NO LEAK = Minimum acceptable thing.

RC

UPDATE:
Went to Autozone...Their water neck is a different brand, but the SAME item.."CHINA 884" Joe said he used this one on his neighbor's car and it is STRONG heavy steel..You can torque that baby down tight.

Anyway, since it was the same one, I decided my only options were to

-go back to stock without a screw top
-RETRY the chromer with more RTV
-try to grind down some of the areas of the new steel one.

After cleaning the black RTV from last night really good, I went with the 3rd choice. Luckily, I have bench grinder and Dremel. I rounded off the area to the left of the bypass nipple, then sanded. I got the bolts to line up

Then I thought "Id better dry fit the ENTIRE hookup including all the hoses....GOOD THING I DID..
1. The bypass nipple was too close to the alt bracket to slip the bypass hose on...so I had to grind the outer fatter edge a bit.
2. The Top outlet for the upper hose was too big for my hose to slip on (because I have that chrome sleeve, with a double rubber couple inside)>....So I had to sand the diameter down a couple of mm's on an area about 1" down the outlet.


Finally I got everything to dry fit and assembled it just 1/2 hour ago...Im waiting for it to dry, And I dont need to the car, so Ill try to refill it tomorrow at 7PM after work.

Im skeptical b/c of all the problems so far, but it "does seem" to feel tighter around the bottom, and since Joe said I could tq it a lot, I used a ratchet and 1/4" hex head to tighten it really good.

I must say that when I cleaned the RTV off the housing (AGAIN), the black did seem harder to get off than the red...I guess that means it bonds better

Wish me luck..

Thanks
RC

1105 said:

Hes gonna need it. Anyone wanna make a bet on if it seals properly or not? I have faith in RC so I say it'll work this time

Click to expand...

I have faith in ME too...it's all those dang parts I dont have faith in.

I will say tho that the black RTV seems to be firmer and stronger than the red stuff.

RC