440 Water Pump Housing and Radiator Questions?

[streetmachine]

Hello, so I was looking at the cooling system on a 70 B-Body that has been off the road for a while. Since day one this car has had a cooling issue so here is my question. The car was originally an A/C Small Block car but, now stock Motorhome 440. I noticed it has passenger side dump water housing and the part number on the housing is 3688468.

I'm just wondering if I should switch to a driver's side dump aluminum housing or keep the current housing? Another thought is to get a driver's side cast iron housing? Is anyone better than the other with regards to flow? Just wondering which route I should go? Thank you in advance for any help or information.

 

[streetmachine]

The other part of this is I suspect the radiator could be a potential suspect. It is an unknown copper brass radiator from a parts store for a small block (no numbers on tanks) but, don't know of any other specs since it came on the car. Depending on the water pump housing I thought about a Cold Case Radiator which seems to get good reviews or going with something like this but, uncertain. Any thoughts? https://www.ebay.com/itm/301546384651?hash=item463590ad0b:g:PxYAAOSwFGNWTgqr

 

[69L48Z27]

Housing should not make any difference. The one you have is for a truck. You’ll just need to create a lower hose that works and doesn’t get in the way of anything.

Always make sure the radiator is flowing properly. If you have a hot condition that builds slowly it’s typically due to lack of flow. I have no experience with Cold Case.

 

[WileERobby]

Housing DOES make a difference if you're going with a driver side inlet. Some aluminum housings made in certain country do not have the flow characteristics of the factory part. Same goes for radiator, cheap garbage radiators will not cool properly. That goes for the pump itself as well, there are differences. In any case, a factory shroud with a clutch fan is my recommendation.

 

[#41]

The passenger side OEM housing is for more than truck: also motorhome and later model year cars. I don't know of any test published that compares flow, but the motorhome engines were built for max cooling if that gives you any indication. If you want the correct look, your car would have had the lower hose connection on the drivers side.

The bottom line is your cooling issue in not likely to be the water pump housing, but rather the radiator, fan, fan shroud, or some combination of these things.

 

[streetmachine]

Thank you all. I'm still learning and was reading some conflicting things about the housings, pumps, thermostats, and radiators hence my questions here. I was doing some more digging today and there is a couple of things I'm going to try and go from there. I think I'll stick with the current housing and at this point won't worry about the correct look as this was a 318 A/C car with now a 440 and no A/C plus there is a few other incorrect items anyways.