thermostat housing gasket

To make matters even more confusing is that the FSM actually shows a gasket for the housing in the diagram. But rest assured, there is not one used/needed.

Also if you do remove the housing, be sure not to overtighten the bolts when reinstalling. The FSM also incorrectly listed the torque. I believe it should only be about 11 or 12 ft/lb.

Thanks for the info, that might be why its leaking, water pump was done two years ago almost, and been leaking for just about as long, but started with a slow leak, never to the point of bothering me, plus only used the car for maybe 5000 mile sin 2 years, i ll definitely be careful when i torque it

9c1sheriff said:

To make matters even more confusing is that the FSM actually shows a gasket for the housing in the diagram. But rest assured, there is not one used/needed.

Also if you do remove the housing, be sure not to overtighten the bolts when reinstalling. The FSM also incorrectly listed the torque. I believe it should only be about 11 or 12 ft/lb.

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94 FSM lists it as 21 ft/lbs. I found out the hard way that is wrong. I was lucky, the bolt broke without damaging the housing. It should be 8 ft/lbs. If not using a torque wrench, that is barely more than snug. Do not overtighten - that is soft aluminum.

Another thing to check is the underside of the thermostat housing to see if the area that actually comes into contact with that O-ring is still intact and not eroded too badly to seal. I swapped waterpumps last month only to find out that it was a badly eroded thermostat housing that was causing the leak. I managed to find one locally, but they're still available through RMS if none of your local dealers has one still in inventory.

Jim

I would like to replace my thermostat, but one bolt is frozen. Should I break it off, or grind it off, and then use a bolt extractor? I promise to use anti-seize on the new bolts!

Al Von said:

I would like to replace my thermostat, but one bolt is frozen. Should I break it off, or grind it off, and then use a bolt extractor? I promise to use anti-seize on the new bolts!

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I would break the head off the bolt, heat the waterpump around the bolt with a propane torch and try using vice grips to work it out.

I put a new thermastat in my 96 today. Someone used a sealant on the housing. I cleaned it all off and just put the new thermastat is, allowing the rubber right on the thermastat to seal. So far no leaks. You should not have to put sealant on the housing at all.