so i spent a few hours changing the thermostat and flushing the rad.
did everything right. i put on a new gasket and some black rtv.
tightened the nuts and re-connected the hose but now its leaking.
was i suppose to let the rtv cure?
thanks
The factory thermostats actually could be installed and twisted to lock them into the housing. If you installed an aftermarket thermostat, it may have slipped out and is between the housing and block causing the leak. Or, hopefully you didn't tighten it too much if this occured because then you could have cracked the fragile housing. And, a new one is not too cheap ... around $90 at the dealer.
Normally, I will put some kind of sealer on the thermostat the night before and seal it in place and put it on the following day ... two drops of super-glue works great the night before. It holds it in place for installation and is easy to remove when replacing the thermostat. I'd take it aprt and inspect the housing and sealing ... should be easy to spot the problem. But, check the housing carefully to make sure you did not crack it tightening it with the thermostat not seated properly.
Since you didn't specify where the leak is coming from, we can't know for sure. But if the leak is coming from the t-stat housing area, then both guys above nailed it.
Take the t-stat housing off again, remove t-stat and clean the groove in the housing. I use a sharp nail and run it around the corner of the groove to get out all corrosion and calcium deposits. Then clean both the intake and t-stat housing flat surface of any sealer. take the t-stat and lay it flat in the housing groove with copper pellet and spring up, then take high tack sealer and smear it on the flat surface of the t-stat housing, avoid getting any on t-stat, lay the new gasket on the t-stat housing and align the holes of gasket and housing with the bolts and let the sealer tack up real good. you now have the t-stat in the groove of housing with the gasket over t-stat setting up, so you can easily place the housing with t-stat and gasket up to the intakes flat surface aligning bolt holes and putting bolts back in.