Reverse Flow vs. Regular cooling flow on Bronco 302

Is there any reason you can't convert a reverse flow cooling system on a Ford 302 to regular flow? To make a long story short, a simple water

pump replacement turned into a timing belt, timing gear and timing belt

cover replacement too. I didn't realize it but Autozone gave me the wrong timing belt cover (regular flow instead of reverse) and i put it on, but when I tried to bolt up the new reverse flow water pump, it wouldn't seal up. I checked with Autozone and they said reverse flow is OEM & the regular one is also specified for the Bronco and they apparently sent the wrong one. To work with this I looked at a water pump for a crown vic and compared it to the old reverse flow pump...the

vanes on both point the same direction so they both seem to have the same specified pump rotation.

I really didn't feel like taking the timing belt cover off again so I have put on the crown vic pump and the car is actually running cooler, but is there any downside to this modification?

Reply to
GSS
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You cannot swap a right and left hand water pump unless you are changing out the complete drive system on the front of the engine. The incorrect pump for the drive system will not cool properly. Just out of curiousit, where the hell did you find a timing belt for a 302? Those must be rare as all get out.

Lugnut

Reply to
lugnut

rare or non-existent?

Reply to
ShoeSalesman

I saw one a few years ago in a warehouse in Michigan. The company had built it as an experimental one-off in conjunction with a dry sump lube arrangement for a Winsor being comtemplated for a class of boat racing. I doubt very many folks outside that program ever knew it existed but, there may be other odd setup around. Who knows? You just don't see many on the street.

Lugnut

Reply to
lugnut

I see no reason you couldn't... seems to me the Dan Gurney small blocks were reverse flow..... but then, Dan Gurney had a lot more money than the rest of us...

The real question is "why would you want to?".... Engine modifications would have to be pretty exotic to require this kind of change....

Reply to
Jim Warman

I'm getting confused... I couldnt figure why he would want reverse flow, then I thought Ah-hah! Means reverse rotation as common on the 5.0... now I'm confused again.

Reply to
Backyard Mechanic

A reverse flow cooling system picks up heat from the cylinder heads first (this is the critical area) and then passes through the engine block (the cylinders themselves being much cooler than the combustion chambers). The temperature "map" in the engine becomes less varied, the CCs are cooler and the chance for unwanted events to happen in the chambers is reduced....

The concept is relatively simple... but now we need to move the thermostat and make additional changes to reduce an resistance to coolant flow. At one point in time, it was expected that production engines would require reverse flow systems. These may be fitted on some of the exotics, but I haven't seen any north american production engines with this as yet (though the Ford 2.9 V6 has a goofy fill procedure and I haven't had the chance to srudy the cooling system closely....).

If we look closely at nearly any head gasket, we can start to understand the amount of technology involved..... Notice all the little holes and passages that seem almost random. These can be steam vents or passages designed to increase coolant flow over specific areas of the cylinder head. If we look closely at some race bred, American V8 cylinder heads, we can often see mysterious hoses sprouting from the middle of the intake face of the head (particularly on the Chevy V8s with teo exhaust valves side by each at midpoint).

Let's not forget that, many, many years ago, cylinder heads had metal inserts to direct coolant flow to the exhaust valve bowls in many engines... These would rot out and create some mysterious overheating ailments.

Reply to
Jim Warman

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