With the adaptor plate and the "early" 216/235 water pump you'll have about 1/2-3/4" between the fan and the radiator. Using the adaptor plate not only gives you some additional clearance but it raises up the fan so it is centered in the radiator. More effective cooling.
The short pump also gives you the same clearance between the fan and the radiator. However, it does nothing to center the fan and I had cooling issues. The adaptor plate and the early pump give you the proper fan clearance, center the fan on the radiator, has the correct sized pulley to give you the correct fan speed and best of all, you can get a replacement pump at any local parts house. I'm running an aftermarket 15" 6 blade fan with no radiator, alternator or Harmonic balancer clearance problems.
No more clearance issues, fan over-speed, cooling concerns or waiting on the UPS truck to deliver an expensive "short pump". If you're thinking about using both in combination it won't work!
I've got a some pictures of the adaptor plate and the instructions for installation in my Webshots "tips and tricks" album. Click on "full size" in the upper right corner of the webshots page to enlarge the pages for easy reading. Hope this helps.
Dave
