I removed the yellow fan of death main belt drive cooling fan and replaced the system with new radiators and twin electric fans. When removing the old fan and pulleys, I was able to remove the water cooling pump and gasket. There are two longer bolts that supported the fan, pulleys and tighten down the anchor bolts on the end of the water pump. After removing the main fan and pulleys, the two bolts are too long to tighten the water pump casting to the engine. How far back do the bolts go back into the engine, and can the bolts be removed and replaced with shorter bolts? Or do the bolts need to be rethreaded down to the face of the engine and cut shorter and install new washers, lock washers and nylock nuts?

How to remove extra long bolts @ water pump

 

Those look like studs, to me.

i would just put some spacers on to cover the unthreaded portion.

You can probably remove them using double nuts, but don't break one off in the block.

Doug

 

That is what I did 25 years ago and all good still.

 

I was not that brave.

Had a die nut, threaded them down, washers and nuts, cut the excess, and filed the sharps so I bled less later in time.

 

Thanks for the information and the results of the two simpler methods. I think I will go with the easiest and most safe with the possibly of breaking things due to the age would to use the spacers. There is one bolt on the watter pump housing that has a recessed screw head, probably to avoid hitting a belt or something. Has anyone been able to change the bolt to a hex head if the drive belts can be moved out a notch on the main drive pulley?

 

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That ONE odd bolt, Leave it be. IF, and I mean IF, you want to remove it, using the CORRECT driver bit, and Anti Seize the threads, do so.
Water pump failure on the V12 is rare.
Moving the belts, nope, you shin the crank pulley, sweet, then you spend days/weeks, realigning all the other components, waste of drinking time.

OK, I be odd, but I am down here, and re-inventing the wheel is a lost cause to me since the MK 7 days, Jags do what they do VERY WELL, and the little oddities are just part of what they are.