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i think your right, i'd pull the gasket out get a new one and make sure the surfaces are clean then put it all back with a thin smear of silicone.
Thanks mate. Someone on FB said it may have rusted through.. I guess I won't know until I pull it out.. Hoping it's not though. Murphy's law, bugger all places stock them, and I'm going away tomorrow.
Yeah a smear of some RTV and you might as well replace the thermostat while your at it
Get rid of the OE clamp and buy a decent wormdrive clamp as well
04 ST 3lt auto, not enough Mods to keep me happy, but getting there
Yeah, it's quite possible it's rusted through than gasket failure, or a combination of both.
Check the picture below.
That's what my thermostat housing looked like when I opened it up recently.
It wasn't leaking to outside, but that 'cos I pasted a generous amount of sealant on and around the bolts
when I fitted the thermostat years ago during the cylinder head job.
In my case, the engine running "too cold" or taking longer to warm up was probably caused by coolant going pass that corroded opening into the block.
I replaced it with a R31/VL commodore thermostat housing that i had with me, but I had to weld a smaller piece of pipe to it 'cos the
Patrol coolant hose is slightly smaller. You can buy the Patrol thermostat housing from fleabay for $40.
Patrol one is aluminium( at leas in my case). I think the mild steel one used in R31 skyline/VL commodore is better 'cos it's more resistant to quick corroding like aluminium with the coolant acidity issue.
Check your coolant acidity. If you haven't done any maintenance recently, reverse flush the block.
Use the coolant flush port on the exhaust side of the block. It's right next to the last welch plug.
It's the large 22mm bolt with the copper washer around it. Don't lose the copper washer.
Washer keeps seal tight.
Remove the thermostat & put the high pressure water into the coolant drain port on the block and reverse flush it. Do both reverse flush & forward flush from thermostat port.
Then refill the coolant with distilled water and coolant. Of course, drain the radiator as well.
P.S. The corrosion on my thermostat housing is not a recent one. It was like that from it's previous life of poor maintenance.
Last edited by dom14; 18th August 2016 at 01:34 PM.
Thanks guys. Heading away tomorrow night so no time to order a new housing and nobody stocks them locally. Hoping it's just the gasket, will use a cork gasket and a squirt of goo and hopefully she'll be all good.
Any recommended gasket goo's? Pref something that dries reasonably quick as I need to drive this tomorrow afternoon and won't be able to do it until 9pm tonight.
+1 for housing corrosion. All too common
People think the coolant is OK because it is green, so they don't change it. (kind of like how most tend not to change brake fluid) Once it turns salt it allows electrolytic corrosion to occur within the cooling system.
First bits to go seem to be steel components like welch plugs, steel coolant pipes and yes - steel thermostat housings. Next is the alloy parts that turn to crumbly chalk.
"Can't" is a dirty 4 letter word.
Best way to deal with a "Can't" is to chop off the "t" and brew it in boiled water for a few minutes.
Sip on the "t", and consider what you've got left to work with
Thanks guys. Heading away tomorrow night so no time to order a new housing and nobody stocks them locally. Hoping it's just the gasket, will use a cork gasket and a squirt of goo and hopefully she'll be all good.
Any recommended gasket goo's? Pref something that dries reasonably quick as I need to drive this tomorrow afternoon and won't be able to do it until 9pm tonight.
Use paper gasket, not cork gasket. If you have a solid thick piece of cardboard(solid, not the cardboard with corrugated layer sandwiched between two layers of paper), you can make your own or lot easier to buy it from Burson, for $3.
Make sure to you leave it(pasted sealant) open to air for at least five to ten minutes to turn it "tacky" before fitting in.
When fitting, touch the bolts and leave it for another half our or so before fully tightening them.
That way you can fill it with coolant straightaway.
Very Important. The thermostat housing only fits in one orientation. It looks like you can turn it around any way and fit it, but it IS NOT. So, make sure you mark it with the engine block as I've done in below picture.
Last edited by dom14; 19th August 2016 at 02:58 PM.
+1 for housing corrosion. All too common
People think the coolant is OK because it is green, so they don't change it. (kind of like how most tend not to change brake fluid) Once it turns salt it allows electrolytic corrosion to occur within the cooling system.
First bits to go seem to be steel components like welch plugs, steel coolant pipes and yes - steel thermostat housings. Next is the alloy parts that turn to crumbly chalk.
Certainly true mate. BTW, the aluminium thermostat housings are no better than mild steel ones when it comes to corrosion from the acidity of the coolant.(as you can see from the above picture I've posted)
High quality corrosion resistant ones are pretty damn expensive.
I think, checking coolant PH level and replacing it yearly or so should be part of regular maintenance.
Last edited by dom14; 19th August 2016 at 04:25 PM.
Hey guys, cheers for the replies. Ended up being the gasket, the housing was in surprisingly good condition. Cleaning the surfaces up took the longest, razor blade and some sandpaper and a bit of elbow grease got them nice though. Replaced the thermostat whilst I was there. Took a while to bleed as it always does, but made it to Lake Tyers and back with no issues. Took twice as long as it should have as I put it back together but then realized I had both the new and old thermostats sitting on top of the radiator. Oops.
Originally Posted by garett
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