engine and drivetrain Water Divider

[Stevenc22]

My water divider keeps leaking at the hoses. I replaced the hoses and clamps and it still leaks. After looking over the water divider, it is pitted and might be pitted all the way through the metal.

 

1) The water divider shares its gasket with the intake manifold?

2) Does the intake manifold need to be removed to remove the water divider?

3) If so, can the intake manifold just be loosened enough to slip new gaskets on the studs or realistically will the intake manifold need to be fully removed?

 

 

This is a '76 2 barrel with no emissions equipment.

[FB73tii]

1) yes, the divider shares a gasket with the #1 intake port

2) you can remove the divider without removing the manifold

3) However, if the gasket is damaged when removing the divider, you need to pull the entire intake manifold off the studs to clean up the old gasket and install the new one. At that point, good chance the other three intake gaskets will be damaged, so plan on replacing all four.

 

Pitted water dividers are fairly common, though I've never had one so bad that it leaks. An option would be to dry it out and apply JB weld to fill in the pitted area. After it dries, reattached the hose and see if it still leaks. If not, you are good to go. If it does--new divider and four gaskets. BTW, the water divider can be difficult to get off of the long stud, try to clean out as much corrosion as you can and then use some penetrant on it.

 

--Fred

Edited February 19, 2014 by FB73tii

[M3M3M3]

1/yes

2/yes

3/ what Fred said, except you may be able to cut off the damaged part of the gasket, clean divider and head to bare metal, and use rtv gasket goop instead of paper....without removing manifold. this is a good opportunity to replace all those ancient manifold gaskets however...

[Stevenc22]

Got it. Thanks gents.

[glemon]

Thanks for posting this, I just got a good divider from the FAQ marketplace, as far as how badly they can corrode, mine isn't just pitted about 1/3 or half of the extrusion to mount the hose on is gone, I had to push it up as far as I could on the divider to get it to seal.  Anyway, now I know why I was having trouble finding the gasket for the thing, should have been looking for a manifold gasket.