Broke the thermostat housing

[Dr.Scientist]

The thermostat gasket on my 94 GT was leaking, so I figured I'd replace the thermostat and gasket. I was having a hard time getting the gap closed up on the right hand side, between the new gasket and the thermostat housing. It had what looked to be like a 1/8" gap still in there. And when I took it off, the bolt was really in there. I mean really in there. So maybe the last guy had the same problem?

Anyway, I tried to tighten that bolt back down as much as it was tightened to begin with, in an attempt to close that tiny gap. Well I snapped the shoulder of the thermostat housing. Is this something that is fairly common? Do they finally get weak after too many heat cycles? It looks like it was just crappy cast aluminum.

 

[a306juGRnot]

woiuldnt doubt its commom cuz i did the exact thing on mine when retightening it. autoparts store carry them tho so its no biggy...went to kragen for mine and it was 8 bucks. it was also iron instead of aluminum but it really doesnt matter.

 

[ivan12]

My old one corroded on the tube that goes to the bypass hose and disintegrated. I bought one of those iron ones at autozone and found 2 problems, 1 it has a hole on top that you have to plug up, same size as the coolant sensor. 2, since it's bare iron it will rust pretty bad so make sure you hit it with some rustoleum or something similar. Oh and the first one I had bought i didnt check and they had given me one with a 45 degree angle instead of 90. Just my experience

 

[a306juGRnot]

My old one corroded on the tube that goes to the bypass hose and disintegrated. I bought one of those iron ones at autozone and found 2 problems, 1 it has a hole on top that you have to plug up, same size as the coolant sensor. 2, since it's bare iron it will rust pretty bad so make sure you hit it with some rustoleum or something similar. Oh and the first one I had bought i didnt check and they had given me one with a 45 degree angle instead of 90. Just my experience

one i had at kragen had a plug on it already and if you tell them the exact year of your car, they should give you the right one which is 90 degrees. and yeah, mine has started to rust. i prolly need to do that so make sure you do that to yours too!

 

[Dr.Scientist]

Yeah I found that autozone iron one online for $10. Went ahead and ordered that one. Found another places that sells steel ones for $23, so that one is probably a little better. Oreilly's actually sells a plastic one, which would probably be great for a time. But I can see the plastic one finally giving way to the heat cycles and disintegrating. But at least its light. Ford of course wants $89 F!@# dollars for their motorcraft cast aluminum piece of garbage. I wouldn't pay that if it was actual good aluminum. Then again, I never would have had this problem if it was.

 

[ivan12]

$79.99 from summit

 

[1bad95]

that thing is nice i gotta get me one! that the csr one?

 

[ivan12]

The CSR one is around $110, this one is made by Canton

 

[Dr.Scientist]

Hey how does the thermostat go in? Like this?

 

[toyman]

That's backwards. The spring goes into the the intake manifold.

 

[Dr.Scientist]

Thank you sir. I was thinking that the whole thing may have been leaking and malfunctioning cause the last guy installed the thermostat backwards. But it seems he had it in there the right way. Probly just a bad gasket due to thermostat failure or something.

 

[modo]

$79.99 from summit

thats purdy

 

[Paul]

I have the CSR one. Nice piece, but doesn't seem any fancier than the cheaper one shown above.

 

[Addermk2]

That Canton stat housing makes me horny...

 

[Dr.Scientist]

Yeah that's nice. I would have bought that one if I weren't on a budget right now.

 

[Dr.Scientist]

Hot under the collar. The autozone chinese waterneck has to be grinded on to make it fit. Grr. Now I have to go get yet another gasket. Getting tired of this job. What about that plastic "four seasons" waterneck that Rockauto has? Think the plastic would wear out?

 

[Dr.Scientist]

Broke the autozone chinese waterneck. Never would have worked to begin with. Stay away from that part. Went to oreilly's and got an aluminum one that seems to work. It also pinches the bypass hose, but not nearly as much.