Thermostat housing

james5275

Registered User
Hello everyone,
Just wanted to post up my recent work. Been fighting the notorious thermostat housing leak for years, finally decided to do something about it.

$10 in low carbon steel, 3/8" from McMaster Carr
$10 in a plumbing fitting from McMaster Carr, 1-1/4" barb x 1-1/2 npt
$20 1-1/4" flex hose, Dayco, 23" from autozone.

About 2 days worth of work, cut off the old bleeder/bypass fitting, hand machine the plate, Bridgeport machining the plate for thermostat recess. Another couple hours to weld the bleeder/bypass. Couple hours to r&r then fill the system. Bleeding the system worked the same as normal, and I confirmed returning the exact amount of antifreeze as was drained, minus the small unavoidable spills.

Best perk is showing off that pretty blower.

Just thought I would share the mod, I'll be happy to do a quick detailed write up for anyone interested.

JJ
 

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One more. Close up. Should have taken pics as I was putting this together but got so involved I just wanted to know if it work!

JJ
 

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View attachment 66958

Nice work...wonder how it plays with the OE layout/flow.

Yes. It took me a couple weeks to finally find a steel fitting that had at least the same cross section as the oem housing. The nipple fitting ID is within .01" of the oem housing smallest diameter (right where the curved tube meets the housing). Flow shouldn't change substantially, and I did this by design due to the previous bypass design. Flow should be real close to oem. I was more concerned with bleeding, but that seemed to work out.

Without involving the ford engineers, only time will tell.

Thanks for the compliments.

JJ
 
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