Water Pump Housing Corrosion

[skirodeo7]

Accidentally posted this in the general forum. Meant to post it here. My redtop's water pump housing looks like it's corroding. I've never seen this before on an aluminum block. Anyhow if anyone has any suggestions or knows exactly what this growth is, feel free to enlighten me. I'm worried that liquid gasket won't be able to properly seal the water pump with this thing there.

[CSUPUEBLOTIM]

It almost looks like a foam type gasket material. Maybe a dremal and smooth it out?????

[redsx13]

I have seen this problem a few times, not in this specific area but an aluminum block is highly susceptible to electrolysis as a result of the acidity of the coolant. Due to the age of the car many sr20dets have developed internal corrosion in their cooling systems.

[skirodeo7]

makes sense to me. do you have any suggestions on how to seal it properly?

[redsx13]

start by scraping away the black substance on with a razor blade, don't worry about the internals, focus on just the contact points between the block and the pump. once you do that can get a good idea of what we have to work with so make sure you post more pics.

[redsx13]

also, what type of gasket did you pull off that thing?

i may be wrong, but it looks like someone ran into this problem before you and tried to seal it with rtv. what was your motivation for removing the pump in the first place?

[skirodeo7]

There was just super black RTYV on it. I was doing a full rebuild and took everything off

[240life]

that suks, i can't think of anything with that deep of scouring to fix that. I would say as long as it was not leaking before, seal it real good and let it cure fully before adding coolant