You said in one of your posts if i read correctly that the pump and timing cover are not touching but are so close you can not get a piece of paper between them. this would be a long shot but i wonder if they are so close that when everything heats up and expands the timing cover and pump are contacting each other and something is twisting or warping just enough to cause a leak? i would say highly unlikely but . . . . . .

Pat

Spacers are a bad idea because of pulley alignment

Unless they still line up with the pulleys that way. plus they also make pulley shims.

If you ever had to muck with pulley alignments you would, Just say NO! I've had to space out the power steer mounts, alternator mounts, and make a 4 hole spacer for the water pump pulley to match up with a damper pulley that was farther out towards the radiator.

Much easier to machine the Cloyes cast aluminum timing cover

Well I have but im not doubting that machining the cover may be an easier solution. I bought the spacers/ shims though and didnt have to make them.

Thabks for all the input guys, doing some more searching on the net, it seems this is a common problem. I’d never seen this and none of my friends have either. However, it’s all over the place! It looks like the Edelbrock pumps may use an o-ring. I have tried calling them the past sevr days to verify but cannot get anyone on the phone, wait on hold for 20us minutes and nothing.

I was just looking over stuff and I pulled out the pump from my SB, it was a Weiand that I never had an issue with. I noticed it uses a much thicker gasket that looks like cork. I’m thinking this would definitely help my situation. If there is any slight variance in the machining a cork gasket would absorb that where a paper gasket wouldn’t.

so now I wonder if I should replace it with a cork gasket or just get another pump such as a Weiand or Edelbrock?

If you do decide to rebuild the W.P. you should seal the gasket properly.
Permatex makes a Water-neck & Water-Pump RTV. Small white squeeze tube, found at AutoZone $8.
What makes this sealant different is, that its Glycol Proof. The others may not be.

thanks I’ll check that out, I did use Permatex ultra
Grey on this gasket. I know they state you shouldn’t use any sealant with a Felpro gasket but I had to try something.

Is there an option to use just the Permatex water pump sealant without a gasket?
The other places I’ve seen go gasket-less seem to work pretty well (China rails, diff covers, transmission pans, etc.
With the pump off for rebuilding, you should be able to do a real nice job of prepping the surfaces for the sealant.

I don't know about going gasket-less. Sounds like a bad plan. But anyway, Permatex Water-Neck / Water Pump sealant is Glycol proof.

And I will never understand why FelPro insists on "RTV Not Needed". BS. I do anyway.
These cars are 40+ yrs old with 40+ yr old mating surfaces.
Goop Is Good!

I had a Cloyes adjustable roller cam button timing cover on my BBC after a rebuild and needed to mill down the GM Aluminum Water pump bolts so they would not make contact. You don't need a lot of material on the bolt to still get a socket on it.