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948 Thermostat Housing

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AN6-TX

AN6-TX

Jedi Hopeful
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I flushed the cooling system in the MKII today and intended to replace the thermostat and associated hoses as needed. Long story short, the thermostat housing is "fused" to the block and won't budge. I attempted to work it free for a couple hours with no success. Efforts to date include liberal use of PB Blaster and various chisels and screwdrivers to attempt to break the bond between the housing and the block.

I'm guessing heat is the next step but I am extremely leery in going this route b/c I don't want 53 yrs of oil and grime to go up like a match book. Any thoughts?
 
Can you put a piece of pipe into the thermostat housing's outlet to give you more leverage in wiggling it free?
 
Did you try to remove the studs?
 
Haven't tried to remove the studs...actually, I'm not sure how to go about that - any insight?
 
Put two nuts on the stud. Tighten them against each other. Unscrew the bottom one.
 
I usually sacrifice the studs and weld a nut on top. the heat from the weld helps the stud break loose from the t-stat housing.
 
If you break the housing I have several spares and I will send you one
BillM
 
Dental floss
take a long piece make a couple wraps around your hands
saw around the stat at the gasket
this will cut down on the amount of stuck gasket
making it a little easier to get it lose
 
If you haven't already figured it out, the stuck housing is based on two issues. One the obvious, the housing and gasket are stuck to the head. The other reason, which is not too obvious, is that the steel studs corrode to the aluminum housing. So removal is an attack on both.....try to remove the studs first , and then try to separate the housing and gasket from the head. Good luck,
Scott in CA
 
Got everything off and "cleaned out" and then managed to break off a tap in the hole trying to re-thread it. Hardened steel doesn't like to drill up. Back to the drawing board.
 
Almost 3 months later and the car is finally back on the road. Long story short, a fair amount of hand chiseling and some dremeling with small sharpening stones got the bloody tap out. We cleaned up the hole, used a Time Sert (no more helicoils...ever), a little JB Weld Steel Epoxy to help seat the Time Sert and I was ready to "rebuild" the thermostat. As luck would have it, I had to trim the new radiator hose by about 1-1/2" to get the dang thing to fit. I had plenty of choice words along the way...especially for the supplier that I purchased it from. Based on my short test drive, looks like front brakes are next.
 
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