Well, I installed the housing finally.. It ended up being a somewhat pricey mod. I'll let you guys decide if it's worth it or not for your application.
About $100 for everything, maybe a little less if you have it done all at once at the same shop.
There's a few advantages to an aluminum housing. Better 'heat dissapation' properties, looks better than rusted iron, lighter, etc...
You could do some or maybe even all of this stuff yourself, depending on your skills/shop, but I found it easier to have a shop do it all.

For the interested folks, here's what you need to do:

Items you'll need:
FC water pump, housing and pulley. You will probably need the spacer and clutch fan as well, but I am going electric fan so I didn't measure it. I know the pulley won't bolt up to the FC pump, so the FB spacer and fan will likely not work either. Be advised.

1. Remove the nipple for the FC throttle body coolant. I used a vice.
2. Remove the coolant temp sensor. Dunno what this does for the FC, for the ECU I think.
3. Clean up the housing. I used a bench brush/grinder.
4. Take it to a machine shop and have them weld the spot where you removed the coolant nipple, and the extra stud hole on the engine side of the housing.
Ask around for a good shop that can weld aluminum.
5. Next, have them machine down the weld they made for the extra stud AND the two 'mount holes' that the spacers on the engine go to. (to keep it flush to the engine) It should now all be flush and the extra stud hole covered proper.
6. Now, on the other side of the extra stud hole, on the front of the water pump housing is a larger hole than the other bolt holes, so drilling and tapping wouldn't be wise, in my opinion. I had the machine shop install a 'keensert' so I could use a bolt for it about the same size as the others. It was an american size, but I wasn't going to pay extra and wait for the metric. It works very well and I have heard from at least 2 shops that keenserts are better than helicoil.
7. I had a gasket custom made at a local gasket place. Was $5 and withstands temps up to 750 degrees. You can make your own just as cheaply but that paper is crap compared to custom made stuff as far as I'm concerned.

If you want to keep the clutch temp switch that was on the back of the FB housing, you will need to figure out the thread pattern and have the machine shop tap it. Somebody post up if you happen to know it.

That's it. Everything will bolt up normally after that.

Here are a few pics of mine to help you get the idea:
http://home.mindspring.com/~wilkinsjr/wp%20housing/

 

BTW, the thermostat and radiator hose fitting will bolt right up. Forgot to mention.

 

just to add: don't know about the pulley, but u WILL need the fan, unless u go electric.