thermostat

[ab56452001]

hi,the thermostat has been a bit suss on my vn/s1, so ive decided to change it ,the hose conection and the housing over.Got the hose of o'k',it was starting to crack,then tried the single housing bolt,well !!!,it was half rounded of took me about an hour after i loosened the throttle of a bit so i could get the socket on reasonably straight,daylight ahead?,no way !!!,the old thermo housing must be welded on !!, ive bashed it, leavered it, till finaly i put a bootle jack under the spout with the base on the transmission,that will bloody well fix it !!, well sort of, half the housing broke of and the f123ing base is still stuck in,has anybody got any ideas now how to get it out?, or else ill set it alight and tell the cops that it got stolen and trashed!!!! , thanks...........

[greenfoam]

Looks like it's manifold off time for you, then you can soak it in some penatrine or something then bash it off, clean it all up and stick a new one in, this is a good lesson for everyone to not leave thermostat changes this long

[ab56452001]

thanks for reply, ive been really giving it heaps, to no avail !!,is it a really complicated job to take the manifold of ?, hope not!!!! , thanks.........

[immortality]

possibly with the TB and elbow remove you could use a cold chisel to break through the thermostat housing as it's only aliminium but you would need to be real carefull not to damage the manifold

[greenfoam]

It's not too hard to pull the manifold off and put it back on but it might take you half a day for the first time. Make sure you drain the water/coolant out before you pull it off and stick some new gaskets in and it should be a winner. It's good to have new gaskets in there anyway since it's common for them to leak when they are old

[ab56452001]

Ive never seen anything like it !, its now smahed down to the base and still wont budge !, looks like ill have to take the manifold of,never done this before, iam not to bad with spanners , dunno how ill go with the wiring, wish me luck!!!, thanks..........

[ab56452001]

P.S. , i hope someone will be able to give me a step by step guide, maybe some photos ?, thanks heaps........

[greenfoam]

Theres really no wires! just a few plugs to undo and a couple hand fulls of bolts

[Nikkojoe]

Haha, reminds me of mine when i did it a few years back, exact situation as you.

I did in the end take off the intake manifold to get the remainder of the housing out. I ended up getting a drill and drilling carefully small holes to break it up into pieces. You might be able to get a dremel with the intake manifold still on the car and carefully cut some holes into it. You should then be able to break the remainder out. You will find once its out, the surface where the oring sits is corroded is a bit pitted. Clean it up with some 400grit wet and dry sand paper, then buy some engine silicone (silastik) and smooth it over the pitted surface. Then apply some over the oring and housing (helps to lubricate and slip it onto the manifold, and also helps to seal it all up). Finally, put it in and clean up any excess silastik.

Hope this helps

[ab56452001]

It gets better by the hour!, got all plugs and hoses tagged and off of the manifold, but what size socket gets the manifojd bolts off ?,number 10 is to big and number 9 to small !!!, i dont believe this........

[greenfoam]

I don't remember, but I wouldn't be suprised if an American motor is non metric

[Stewart1000]

another thread is askign the same question
use 3/8

thats one weird problem your having...

[ab56452001]

Tommorow ill take the manifold off,if i had have done this from the begining id be finished by now !, anyone know what a gasket set is gonna cost ?...........

[Nikkojoe]

I cant remember but genuine ones aren't too cheap.....

Might be a good idea to check if the water portings are coroded, especially around the breather pipe holes. If they are, you need to get it welded or soon water will leak into the engine/or blow out into the engine bay....