Short Water Pump Installation

In an effort to attain a flat firewall I installed an Explorer water pump asm. Now I have 3/8 clearance instead of a 1 + " intrusion. I am concerned about the belt setup having enough surface area on the water pump as is I can mount the idler higher and closer to the water pump if necessary as I have not made the brackets yet.

Wally - Commendable effort!

I would move that idler up higher though.. I think she'll be a squealer if you don't.. I would look for at least 90 degrees of contact to 120 degrees..

Are you going to put an AC Pump on there as well?

HI Randy That was my thoughts. For now I'm not going to install the AC compressor. But I have plenty of room for one I have here if I run a remote oil filter. I am running the lines in the car now as they would be hard to add later. Wally

If you take a look here - You'll see the engine / pulley configuration I had in my Cobra which worked very well.. You could do without the tensioning pulley if you use the Alternator for such duty..
The Idler pulley on mine was done with a factory Ford Mustang AC compressor bracket that I cut up and installed the pulley on.





Couple more pictures after I converted the car over to EFI to race in the Factory Five Challenge Series class;





Hope this is of some help...

Hi Randy Thanks for the pictures. I wish I had the room to move these up that high, As the fire wall angle doesn't give Me the clearance I'm going to do what I can. If this slips I can install the AC compressor that will give Me more wrap on the water pump. But take away from the crank so I may need an idler to gain grip on that.

Here's the variation on mine.....

HI Cliff I like the idea of moving the AC compressor forward. If I were to run the belt across the top of the water pump pulley it would have to be so close that I would have to worry about it rubbing on its self or the firewall.