Water pump housing problems

[missioncritical]

My problem started with a leaking water pump, which appeared to be the original pump on my 70 Cuda.  I ordered a new pump and housing from 440Source.  The engine is entirely original, so my plan was paint the new pump orange and then cover it with grease to make it look old.  I only bought the housing too as 440Source gives you a bit of a price break when you buy both.  I also noticed leaking at the thermostat housing so I bought one of those too in billet.  I did not want to remove the housing because it looked really REALLY time consuming, and I was afraid of all sort of fitment issues.

Well, the pump came off and it was rotted out really bad.  The housing top actually broke off when I pulled on the upper radiator hose.  But, when I went to remove one of the bolts (the left one), the $%# bolt broke off in the housing. 

I tried for an hour to extract the bolt to no avail, so I spent another hour getting the housing off.  The car has A/C and P/S.  IT WAS NO FUN.

Once I got it off, the dumb broken bolt came out real easy probably since I could get a pair of vicegrips on it.

So, my question is should I try to put the old housing back on, and will it seal up, as the housing thermostat area looks kind of rough.  I do not EVER want to take this thing off the car again.  Or, should I store the old original housing and paint up the new aluminum housing and give it some patina to sort of hide it.  And, what to do with the temperature sensor ?  440Source is closed, so I was hoping to work on this over the weekend, and I don't know if they or anyone else does not have the sensor port in the aluminum housings ?

Thanks for any advice...

-Kevin

[arcticmopar]

 Well sounds like your using the 440sourcepump and housing, the orig sounds too rusted. As far as no sensor ports didnt know the 440source units came without any. Mine from Mancini and it has two ports. Good luck.

[missioncritical]

I think I'm going to install the new aluminum water pump housing and try to make it look as stock-looking as possible.  To correct myself on the water sensor port, there is one on the 440Source housing, its just on top, about where a plug is on the factory one.  My factory housing has a small port on the front just for the sensor.  So I assume it does not matter where the sensor goes as that area is in the housing is all open.  It just seems that the factory put the sensor directly under the connection point for one of the heater hoses.  I don't know which direction the water runs, but I assume the factory wanted the temperature to be taken before/after it left the heater core or something.

Now I just need to decide if I am going to paint orange a perfectly good looking piece of aluminum...\

-Kevin