180 Thermostat and new coolant leak

[from6to8]

When I do mine, I put it into the housing and hold it there with a couple small drops of Crazy Glue. Then, I'm 100% certain that it hasn't moved.

I'm going to take as long as I need to take to make sure this thing is right. So I put a couple drops of gorilla super glue to hold the t-stat in place and then I'm going to put a little permatex on the gasket to the housing side of course. I know most glues need to cure but I know it's not that crazy and not that serious but I do not want the thermostat to move at all and so how long did you let yours sit before you put the gasket on and then actually went to bolt it up?

Red on another post somewhere on stangnet on Google this guy let his sit overnight

 

[General karthief]

Let it set for about 15 min or so, assemble, tighten then it sits overnight.

 

[from6to8]

Let it set for about 15 min or so, assemble, tighten then it sits overnight.

Well it's sitting overnight I will finish tomorrow.

Just stopped and will put the gasket on the housing tomorrow then finish. Actually worked on some yard work after that .

Did a little reading up on that gorilla super glue and hold for 10 to 45 seconds it didn't say anything about curing or anything but airing on the side of caution as in most things need to cure for the most part depending on what it is. Anyway and no rush and overnight it will,

 

[General karthief]

Never used any glue there, just RTV.

 

[from6to8]

Never used any glue there, just RTV.

Yeah I was going to use a little RTV to hold the thermostat in place but I like the idea of two small drops of super glue instead; nice and cleaner

 

[from6to8]

as you are filling the radiator the block is filling at the same time.
the overflow or puke tank as I call it, only comes into play during cool down, overheating will push coolant into the puke tank.
don't over think it.

Ok so filled up yesterday eve when I got off and burped and so far as of yesterday evening things look good. I will check the level over the next few days and after I drive a few times over the weekend; I did not drive it yesterday.

For my knowledge going forward I'd like to know a few things-

So again when I drained to do the stat I drained to about half a pale and more ended up wasting (my mistake and lesson learned on that), probably less than a quart. The overflow jug was near full H level actually and not sure why as it always goes back to cold after the car cools off. Diagnosing the leak upon chaning the stat I did squeeze the upper hose a good bit and that's when I actually noticed coolant under the stat housing that leaked on to the timing cover though at first it wasn't definitive that it was the housing and not the intake itself. That might have pushed coolant into the overflow jug, not sure and just wanted to clarify that about the overflow jug but not concerned as to why it was near the full H level.

So yesterday I filled the radiator halfway and started the car. I forgot to put the heater on high and realized so about 5 ish minutes into the process. Before I turned the heater on I was feeling the upper hose and it was not even warm really and maybe a few minutes before I turned the heater on the temp was around 160-180 and after a few mins of turning on the heater, 2-3 mins the guage read 210. I let it run a few more mins and it was around 212, holding that for a minute or two and the hose still wasn't , well at the time IIRC it might have been slightly warm. So I was like dang that's strange so I shut her off. I let if cool down for 5 minutes and the radiator level did drop some so I added a little more before starting her back up. This time with the heater on high and after maybe about 3-5 minutes ish it got up to 180 and the hose was hot and the fan kicked on. I added more coolant and shut off for another 5-10 mins. I started her up again and it hovered around 180 as it did the 2nd time and everything seemed fine.

I'm wondering why initially it got up to 210 and the hose was cold and I wonder if enough coolant wasn't in the block? I started to put a little coolant at the housing but I was like that little bit isn't going to make a difference as it will only go in when the stat opens anyway. Also I didn't really see any bubbling of the coolant the 2nd and third time though I movement of the coolant though kinda slight. I guess not having drained all of it helped in not much air getting into the system as to not seeing any air bubbles really thru those 3 times of it running?

 

[General karthief]

Not unusual for the first time on new t-stat to get a little hot, check the coolant in the radiator and the puke tank a few times before you drive, temp is within specs and no leaks you should be good, don't over think it, it's a simple system.
Now go burn some rubber

 

[from6to8]

Not unusual for the first time on new t-stat to get a little hot, check the coolant in the radiator and the puke tank a few times before you drive, temp is within specs and no leaks you should be good, don't over think it, it's a simple system.
Now go burn some rubber

gotcha gotcha. Yeah definitely need to do that after finding and fixing the issue with the fan coming on when start the car and noticed the leak right after that literally smh.....

Yeah never to old to learn the function of how things operate, get a much better understanding of things. Over the years I've had a knowledge about things for being able to work on my own stuff though....

 

[from6to8]

This is a good video....


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0ovUHEOtyE

 

[from6to8]

If you have all the coolant out that you can get out, fill with 2 gallons of Coolant/Antifreeze, then top off with distilled water. ( at the supermarket)
Then do the start, top off, cooldown....
Add some coolant to your overflow also.... .....

OR, What I like to do on a fresh engine is fill with distilled water first.... If you have a leak, its only water instead of coolant all over..
No leaks, see above..
Leaks, fix leak and repeat until no leaks.. see top of this post...

So just got home and checked the levels from filling up yesterday and it's still at the sa same levels. When I left it I figured after it cooled down it would pull some out of the overflow job too finish filling the radiator. Well and so I may actually take it on a drive or maybe not today but tomorrow or Sunday and see if it does that. I don't want to add any more to the radiator and then some ends up overflowing out of The jug if that's how that works lol.

The overflow drug is about 3 in above the cold fill line and the radiator I would say from the very top maybe about 3-4 inches as well from being full.

 

[General karthief]

Ok, fill that dude (radiator) up to the top, don't worry if a little runs down the little hose (overflow), cold of course, the puke tank should be at or just above the cold mark, not critical but not below the cold mark, drive it, I mean drive it, I fix my stuff so I have driven this junk hard, so drive it around town, get it out on the big road (highway) and run that dog at 65-70, you'll prolly need to do more like 80 if you want to keep up with traffic but you don't need to, I start by shake down runs, short trips around town, don't do it all in one day, monitor the fluids cold and hot, don't need to open the radiator cap hot, remember skin does not like liquid that's 190-200*. Look under the engine compartment for leaks, cold and hot. Overflow tank not losing fluid, nothing on the ground, temp range good while driving. You're good, move on to the next thing, BLOWER TIME!! If you can't afford that, have a beer

 

[from6to8]

Ok, fill that dude (radiator) up to the top, don't worry if a little runs down the little hose (overflow), cold of course, the puke tank should be at or just above the cold mark, not critical but not below the cold mark, drive it, I mean drive it, I fix my stuff so I have driven this junk hard, so drive it around town, get it out on the big road (highway) and run that dog at 65-70, you'll prolly need to do more like 80 if you want to keep up with traffic but you don't need to, I start by shake down runs, short trips around town, don't do it all in one day, monitor the fluids cold and hot, don't need to open the radiator cap hot, remember skin does not like liquid that's 190-200*. Look under the engine compartment for leaks, cold and hot. Overflow tank not losing fluid, nothing on the ground, temp range good while driving. You're good, move on to the next thing, BLOWER TIME!! If you can't afford that, have a beer

lol actually have a 95 gt saleen that i want to do a 331 for so i'll likely do that nextt