Billet timing cover
region rat said:
Some guys on the sight have written about the Lamar cover. I think you need to space out the water pump because the aluminum version is thicker. And that would require moving all your pulleys. BBC cover has most holes differant plus the bottom where it meets the pan is also differant. Not sure if you can make it work. Front seal could work if you used a bbc crank but that's a lot of ifs . A 348 cover will work and can be a little cheaper, just have to make a new pointer. Bob
Bob,
You're correct. I have a billet timing cover.., which I bought off of e-bay over a year ago from a guy who apparently bailed out of his "W" project. I also bought some 4-bolt mains from the same person.
My billet cover has the SBC front seal, but, I was told you can have them made to accept a BBC seal as well (for stroker motors where you may not want to turn-down the crank's nose to SBC size).
None-the-less, the increased thickness of the billet cover does cause a fitment problem with the water pump. It's too thick to simply allow for directly bolting on the WP, without clashing with it. You'll need to build shims at least 3/16" (plus gaskets) to elongate he water-pump legs to give adquate clearance so it does not clash with the cover.
You then would need to also shim-out the crank pulley the same amount to get proper belt alignment. In turn, this will cause a need to fiddle with the alternator and A/C compressor mountings for the same belt-alignment reason.
I have both the CRW WP and billet timing cover (the WP was not designed by Lamar, but a guy named Rich Rejeski and is properly called a CRW Rejeski water-pump, and NOT a Lamar WP).
Both are expensive pieces and both unnecessary, except for "show". especially if polished. See the FORUM's review section for my review of the WP. IT does NOT cool a "W" better than a stock pump... operating temps with it were compared to be actually about 5 degrees higher than with a stock WP!
Advice: find a nice stock timing cover, and get it triple-plated chromed. As for the CRW-WP, if you need something only to look like its aluminum, paint a stock pump. You'll save yourself about $500, or more, that way.
Denis
