New Water Pump Won't Fit

It seems I'm having a bit of trouble with new parts not fitting. I ordered a new water pump, got it all bolted on with a new gasket and sealant, only to find it wouldn't spin. It seemed to scrape and get jammed on the wall of cylinder one.

I compared it with the old one. The new impeller is larger. But I. noticed that the impeller on the old one had been bent in, as if to avoid hitting the cylinder wall.

Has this happened to anyone and does anyone have any advice? I can't really send my new one back because I'll never get all the sealant off.

I've not pulled my new one back off but when I pulled the old one off I noticed the blades of the impeller were fubar. I thought it was because PO had neglected to flush the coolant system (and I was stupid and took him at his word that the car was ready to go, so really my fault ) and a bunch of crap met the impellers.

Either return the pump for an other one, or if you have ARP head bolt studs the RF one protrudes into the water jacket & can cause interference with the water pump impeller.
There should be no more than .025" between the impeller blades & the pump housing. Check each impeller blade for proper clearance.
I have even pressed the impeller closer to the housing if all blades are out of specs.

You know, that's probably it. I figured it was the cylinder wall because it looks like it's been gouged from the old pump.

The problem then is the pump I bought has a plate mounted to the face of the impeller blades, so there's no bending them. I've ordered another one, so we'll see.

Oh, and guess what? My fuel pump doesn't fit either. The fuel pump lever arm doesn't have enough up and down motion. When I try to install it, the whole pump lifts up and the bolts don't align (it's off about 1"). I ordered both these from RockAuto, which I'm probably not going to do again.

On your fuel pump just turn the engine over some until the cam eccentric is on its lowest point then it should fit and bolt up easy. Good luck

i went with the flow cooler..lighter alum.and now that its 90 degrees..i have notice that at stop lights it stays below 180....