The majority of my small block experience is with Clevelands. So this vertically placed thermostat, coolant in the intake is all new to me.
I installed a thermostat in the car today. The previous owner had removed it, or it completely corroded away, who knows.
Long story short, my housing is now leaking. Any magic tricks from the Windsor gurus on how to keep the stat in the housing while keeping the gasket in place and starting a bolt with only room for two hands?
I was thinking permatex gasket maker, but I was also taught that that stuff is for a temp repair until proper parts are installed, so I tend to avoid it.
Permatex Form-a-Gasket blue… works for me any way. If you have heavy corrosion or one of those chrome pieces of crap you may need to get a good original style cast aluminum outlet to make it work.
Ditto… “Chrome don’t getcha home” with respect to thermostat housings. Even cast original ones are prone to leaking often. Just one of the common problems with small block Fords.
I use a rubber band looped through the “handle” on the thermostat then pull both resulting loops through the hose connector then use a pencil passed through the rubber band loops to keep the thermostat in place. I use Gasgacinch to glue the gasket to the housing (it works like contact cement - brush on both parts, wait to dry, then assemble the parts).
I used a thin layer of “water pump and thermostat” gasket maker from Permatex to glue it all together and get it installed.
Tried a zip tie at first to help pull the stat to the housing while putting it all together, but it required one more hand than was available. I’ll remember the rubber band and pencil next time.
My cast housing has some cavitation erosion, but will last a while longer.
I hooked my breather and PCV back up to the air filter housing and the blow by is so bad, it slows the idle down like a major EGR system.
Put the t-stat back in and some oil additive to help raise the temp and maybe loosen up the rings if they are just stuck and hopefully not flat worn out.
Maybe overheating the crap out of it once will help it seal back up, lol.
I’ll put the bore scope in a spark plug hole next and see what the cylinder walls look like.