Change thermostat day, help with my checklist.

[Rerun]

So, I'm getting my Mr. Gasket 180 thermostat tommorrow and I'm going to change it out. I'm going to get a gasket with adhesive backing, and and upper and lower radiator hose. In my head, here's out I'm going to do it.

1.) Put a drain pan under the car, take off the lower radiator hose and drain the fluid.
2.) Take off the upper radiator hose, and then I was thinking about running a hose to flush out any particles and bad **** out of the radiator.
3.) Undo the waterneck, and clean it of an old gasket and crap.
4.) Take out old thermostat, put the new one in correctly. Put the adhesive gasket on to hold the thermostat in place.
5.) Going to put some sealant on the other side of the gasket, put the waterneck back on and secure it. Going to let it sit so the sealant will set.
6.) Put the new upper and lower hoses back on the radiator.
7.) I'm going to use a 60/40 mix of distilled water and coolant (60 water, 40 coolant) to fill the radiator back up.
8.) Run the car with the cap off to burp the system then top it off again with more mix.

So for the most part, I think I got it down, anyone think of anything I missed? I hate making another thread about this, but I only want to do it once, and do it right. Also, anyone know how much coolant and water this thing is gonna take? 1 gallon of coolant and 1 gallon of distilled water should be enough correct?

Thanks again fellas.
Justin.

 

[ECU5.0]

sounds like you got everything to me...you could even buy one of those radiator flush liquids from the parts store and run that for like 15 minutes before you take the hoses off and flush the radiator...it will help out a lot

 

[cardudeusa]

Looks like you have it all down pat. Maby pick up a new cap depending on the condition of yours. What hoses did you get? The Ford Racing hoses are really nice.

Also I'd throw in a bottle or two of watter wetter. It helps cooling by making the watter bubbles smaller to cover more surface area.

 

[riccorizzo]

Good luck on the lower bolt.. better have a swivel head or something..

 

[The Shape]

Squeezing the upper hose while you have it running with the cap off always seems to help me get the air out better. And if you have one a ratcheting boxend wrench will make the bottom bolt on the water neck alot easier to remove.

 

[HISSIN50]

i think you hit it in a round-about way, but i might go ahead and drain the whole system. if you can find the block drain bolts, pop those (i think the 302's have them). if not, with the stat out, flush the hose water through the system. really cleans the block out. that way, you can refill the whole system with a known mixture and know you are good to go for a bit.

WW is always good, if you have access to some. i think AZ here now sells it....you can always add it later, if you cant get any.
might also do the bypass hose on the housing, since you will have it off. it is a pain to do later.
sorry, i dont remember the capacity of the system. oh yeah, i like to have the heater on while flushing and such - might get some coolant out of the core. also have it on when filling.

sounds good.

 

[88stangmangt]

might have to do that on my vw soon if she runs hott when i get her back on the road this week.

 

[Rerun]

So what's this wrench everyone keeps speaking of that makes taking the bottom bolt off easy? Can I pick this up at the local auto parts store?

 

[HISSIN50]

im not sure what everyone else has used, but for me, i had good luck with a ratcheting box end wrench (box end wrench that has a ratcheting mechanism in it). craftsman, etc make them. a normal box end was about the only that that would fit on my lower bolt, and the fact that it ratcheted made the extraction much faster.

if you are lucky, you can get a 1/4" socket and a swivel joint (universal joint) will work. none of it is rocket science - simply getting the bolt out can be tedious. good luck.

 

[Michael Yount]

Don't forget the bypass hose. It has to come off and it's a pain - I think a bigger pain than the lower hose. I'd replace it. And don't try to reinstall until AFTER you have the t'stat housing bolted back in.

 

[Legendary]

If it's been awhile since you change a therm. than you might have to put a little muscle into removing the hoses. But it's pretty cut and dry. And be sure to clean all the old gasket material off before bolting back up.

 

[Rerun]

Alright, got that wrench. What's this bypass hose people keep speaking of?

 

[Michael Yount]

There's a small hose that attaches between the smaller outlet on the t'stat housing and the water pump. It allows the pump to move coolant even when the t'stat is closed. It's very short and rather difficult to get in place - it's a preformed hose - 90 degree elbow. A common problem is people leave it connected on one end or the other, and then try to get the t'stat housing aligned to put the bolts in. And it's VERY difficult to achieve the proper alignment with that hose in connected on only one end. Said another way - it's much easier to re-attach to t'stat housing when that hose is completely removed - and then re-attach it afterwards.

 

[cardudeusa]

When I did my hoses, I had to take a box cutter and cut a slit in the old bypass hose and peel it back to remove it.

 

[Michael Yount]

cardude - that's why I recommend just replacing it. It's not worth the trouble to try and salvage.

 

[Rerun]

Finding an adhesive backed gasket was harder than I thought, pretty sad if you ask me that all these 'hot rod' and 'speed shops' haven't even heard of them.

Anyhow, If I can't find one by friday I'm just going to use some sealant to try and hold it there, let the fun begin.

 

[Michael Yount]

My experience has been that your standard O'Reilley's or NAPA parts store is more likely to have the adhesive backed gasket than a speed or hot rod shop. I've gotten mine at O'Reilley's and NAPA both.

 

[cardudeusa]

cardude - that's why I recommend just replacing it. It's not worth the trouble to try and salvage.

Yeah, I was agreeing with you 100%. Just giving him a tip to make the removal a bit easier.