Orientation of Water Pump Oil Cooler Tube Adaptor

[Alan_Atl]

Is there a clear, unambiguous picture of the correct orientation of this before the water pump goes in? I've watched innumerable videos and every time they get to the point where they talk about a "quarter turn to lock it in place", their hand is covering it and/or the next frame is the water pump installed. I've broken two of these &F#@! things and have one left and really want to get it right this time. I haven't felt anything obvious while turning it that feels like it's locked so I don't know what I'm doing wrong there.

Any help would be most appreciated!!!

 

[16FujiDisco]

I’ve always felt the same that I couldn’t really see what the end result should look like, but basically your just turning it until the wedge seats up against the flange of the block so that it cant move front to back

 

[Alan_Atl]

In the grand tradition of "as soon as I post a question on a forum, I figure it out", I figured it out. The problem was that I wasn't pushing the tube far enough to get it behind the ridge in the engine block valley. It was really stiff and I couldn't push it any further in. Ultimately I had to wrap a wood block with a shop towel, place it on the end of the tube, then tap it with a ball peen hammer to get it to fully seat. And that's after lubing it with silicon grease! Then it was pretty straightforward to get it to turn and lock.

 

[djkaosone]

I usually put a little bit of super lube silicone grease on the o-ring slide it on the tip, with the tab/fin pointing down 6 o'clock gently work the plastic/aluminum oil cooler tube gently in while spinning it back and forth until the tab/fin hits the oil cooler, and then back off a bit. That's really it.