Remote oil filter bracket and Edelbrock water pump

[chopper]

A couple of questions for those who have installed the Edelbrock water pumps on their FE engines.

This past weekend, I replaced my old water pump with a new Edelbrock pump, model 8805. The first thing I noticed was that the bypass port which connects the pump to the intake manifold is a "pressed-in" type of fitting, unlike the old pump which used a threaded fitting. Is there any reason for Edelbrock using a pressed-in fitting rather than a threaded one? Is a pressed-in connector any more or less prone to eventual leakage than a threaded one? Just curious on this one.

The second question deals with the mounting pads for the remote oil filter bracket. The old pump (a Dove remanufactured unit) appears to have had the lower threaded mounting pad on the left side machined down to accept the "original type" filter bracket. The bracket then attached to the pump with with two bolts which are installed from the front. The Edelbrock pump has not had the lower mounting pad machined down and the original style bracket will not fit on the pump. However, it appears that a flat bracket, constructed in the same shape but made of 3/16 inch stock and without the rear bracing, will fit if mounted vertically in front of the upper mount and behind the lower one. In this case, the upper bolt should install from the front and the lower one from the rear. Has anyone else had this problem, and if so, how did you solve it? Thanks.