Thermostat housing leaking..... PLEASE HELP!!!

Well i have been trying to put my 180 degree thermostat in for about a week now and everytime i put the housing back on it drips out the bottom. i have made sure the the thermostat is in snug. i even put the thermostat in the housing and put the gasket on it and sealed it with high tack gasket sealer and let it set over night. So my question is what can i do to seal it so it doenst leak? it is really frustrating me cause this simple task has turned into a real pain in the @ss. Is there a really good sealant to seal the gasket up good? i am just really frustrated with this and i am getting sick of taking it apart and putting it back togather all the time. Oh by the way i am not overtightening the bolts either. well at least i dont think i am becausei dont know the torque specs for those bolts but i try to just tighten them a little past snug. Please offer any help that u can because all i want to do right now is get this simple task off my dang back. thanks
Matt

I might be coming up to GR this Saturday w/ my friend to pick up some rims for his truck. If you will be around we can swing by and take a look. I'll let you know what time it'll be.

I'm betting in one of the first tries the t-stat 'fell out' of the groove in the housing. So when you tightened it down, the t-stat smashed between the intake and the housing. Then you tightened the bolts a little more to stop it from leaking right? But it kept leaking huh? Been there.. done that.

Take the housing off and check it on a straight edge. If possible, run it on a belt sander to make sure it's flat. I had to cut mine down a little on the sander to get it to seal right again.

See ya,
Steve

Or you could be like me... smear RTV sealer stuff all over the bottom of the housing. It's cheap, its messy, its unprofessional, but it stopped the leak.

i put a dab of black rtv on the housing to keep the therm from slipping,once it dried ,i then put a thin coat on each side of the gasket and installed it.i let it set up over night before filling it,hasnt leaked in like 3 years!![it probley started leaking the second i posted this!!]....how do you spell probely???? proably,probely,proebley,probley???

Probably

I changed the thermostat on mine about a month ago and the same thing happened to me. I couldn't help but think, "What the **** could I have ***** up this time?" Needless to say I wasn't happy cause nothing was going right. I took it off, cleaned it back up, put it back on and cha ching, it didn't leak. My guess, also, is the thermostat slipped when you put it on. Hope you get it working, Brandon

Thanks guys.

Thanks to the search engine, I found this thread. my thermostat is leaking also PROBABLY helped me out the most. Thanks to all you guys. L8a.

Matt - a couple things you can try:-

1). Put a small amount of sealant around the rim of the t/stat; because anything other than the stock 197 deg stat. doesn't lock into the housing and, has a habit of slipping out of place when you install it.
2). Dont use an aftermarket or 'Felpro' gasket - get the Ford one; because there is not enough meat around the vent pipe opening and it's prone to leaks.
3). After thoroughly cleaning both surfaces (block & housing), put the housing in a vise and very carefully bend back the side ears where the bolt holes are, just a touch. This will help pull the housing tight to the block.
4). Don't use any of the 'long life' coolants - they find every place to leak.
5). Don't use any gasket maker material; maybe just a smear of black or blue RTV. Just enough to hold the gasket from slipping.

Worked for me,
Jim.

i had this problem (my solution)

i had the same problem, not sure if yours leaking is caused by what mine was but sounds familiar, i did it myself 3 times and it leeked a little even went to maine (2 years ago) with it leaking a little, i live in CT, so i got back home and gave it to this shop, the guy said i'll do it tomorrow just leave it overnight, .so i did, i called at noon the next day, he said he did it twice, still leaked, he said i'll do it one more time and if it leaks you'll have to get a new gooseneck (waterneck) piece, i said ok and said i did it myself and i thought maybe i did it wrong. the guy said anyone can do this its so dam simple a moron could do it, well i said look i did it a couple times and you did, he said yeah i know i dont what the heck is going wrong.... i told him i remember putting my auto meter coolant temp gauge in there and tighting it really tight, he said there's no need to have it to tight...so then he got to the conclusion maybe i bent the piece where the thermostat, so he took it off and put a ruler against it and showed me the corner was bent, he rebent it and worked first shot...i was so happy...i'd take the housing off and check with a ruler to make sure the piece is totally flat and didnt get bent in a corner, and if that doesnt work i dont know what will... Alex LaChance

I found the Fel-Pro to be identical to the Ford gasket and works just fine. The aftermarket one at the bottom left is the one that doesn't quite have enough material to get a good seal. Holes are also slightly off on that one. The bottom right gasket is for the N/A 3.8 and a lot of places will try and sell you that one!

Hey George - that's interesting about the gaskets. I have a tool box full of Felpro replacements and, had no success with them because the vent holes were all elongated. This left very little gasket material around the edge and always leaked. On my 3 SC's I've owned over the years, I usually ended-up getting the Ford one or making my own from a roll of material.
However, I think the straightness of the flange is probably the main culprit; which is why I very slightly bend back the ears before bolting it on.

Here's a way to keep the thermostat from slipping down when you bolt on the thermostat housing:

Remove the upper radiator hose from the thermostat housing. Loop a piece of string or bailing wire around the piece of the thermostat that sticks out (if someone has a pick of the thermostat I can circle the part that you loop it through) and stick both ends of the string/wire through the thermostat housing. Now you have something to tightly hold the thermostat in place as you bolt on the housing. Makes it much easier to install a thermostat, and unless you have a warped housing, you shouldn't have any leaks.

-Rod

I had the same problem last year,

Got fed up with the gasket, especially after i got the wrong one several times. Finally I said screw the gasket and used copper RTV gasket maker to seal it. Like someone said above, it was dirty, it was un-professional, it was ugly, but it worked great.

I had the same problem recently, the thermastat slipped and bent the housing. I tried to straighten it and had the same the results. I decided to purchase a new housing. Expensive, but I don't have to worry about leaks.

Duane

a tech hint

For those who run hot, I used a little trick that worked in the 50,s & 60,s................we used to remove the themostacts but in some cases it might run hot due to the fact that the water was not being cooled as it run thur the system too fast.....................so I REMOVED THE THEMOSTACT CUT THE PART THAT HOLD THE PLUG OUT...............REPLACED WITH A WASHER WITH A 9/16 HOLE IN IT NOW RUNS A 140 ALL THE TIME NO MATTER HOW YOU PUSH IT.....................FAST FREDDIE

Fast Fred - I'd be concerned about the 140 deg; because I understand the computer stays in the 'warm-up' mode until 160 deg. So you could be running extra rich all the time.
Jim.

I believe that Dr. Fred dispelled that myth about the cold start circut of the engine computer. It's on a timer and eventually will go into it's proper mode.

Though I would think that 140 is too cool for proper combustion.