Solving the warped thermostat housing problem

mywhite89

Registered User
I like many people on here have experienced the common problem with supercoupes where the thermostat housing warped one way or another and causes an annoying(or in my case steady) coolant leak.

I decided I am going to make a 3/8 thick plate to weld to the thermostat housing. The plate will be cut out the same as a motorcraft thermostat gasket. It then will need to be planed to insure a flat surface and an indentation made where the thermostat seats itself.

Well I stopped in to a business today called Innovative Tooling Inc. They do commercial metal lazer cutting, milling, and welding. After learning all this, I convinced them to fix my thermostat housing. They told me they will make a drawing on an Autocad type of program of my thermostat gasket, and be able to use the program to lazer cut me a 3/8 thick piece of metal.

I'm not sure how much they are going to charge me to do all this, but I do know that I am sick of screwing with that housing so I don't care what it costs. I'm pretty sure this extra support piece will help prevent our housings from warping anymore.

I figured since they have to produce a drawing to cut this piece for me anyways, it wouldn't be too hard to make some extras in case anyone else is interested in something like this.

If this seems like something you would be interested in purchasing, please let me know as soon as possible and I'll talk to these guys and see if they would be willing to make a few extras for us. You would just be purchasing the 3/8 lazer cut piece of metal. The rest of the work, you would be responsible for.

Chris
 
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I make most of my gaskets anyway but if you use a much thicker gasket material and plane your old housing {did mine with a 4'' belt sander you sould be good to go. Most people did not know that the stock thermastat locks into the housing so its kinds fool proof but when you use a aftermarket one well it could slip down and sfter you tighten the bolts you just warped it. Just seems like a lot of work to perform this task with the new welded housing and all.
 
Is the intent to weld that piece onto the housing so it completely seals it there?

That is not the main intent, but is a secondary intent, yes. The main intent is to take away the concern of having a thin weak thermostat housing. I don't know what caused mine to warp(maybe it was already warped) but after I threw a blower belt one day, it started leaking. My concern is that once your thermostat housing is warped, it is tough to find one in good shape anymore since they are discontinued through ford.

My fix will strengthen the housing and hopefully eliminate any chance of warping the piece again.
 
Ok, correct me if I'm wrong here, but if you don't weld that new plate to the housing and only intend to bolt the housing through that plate to the intake manifold, then I don't see the point of the plate.

The housing is still warped with only the two bolts holding it, so its going to still leak on the plate instead of the intake, and you also have to make sure you now seal that plate to the intake properly.

I'm confused??????
 
The way I understand this is that we use this 3/8 plate and replace it on our existing t-stat housing. Welding it. I can say this, a 3/8 plate would permit us to flatten is much more should it warp ( and it eventually will ) than what the current setup is. I had a t-stat go out, and never could get the old tstat to seal, tried to flatten it out and still never sealed. At the time ford still sold the housings so I was in luck, except for my pocketbook. This is where it would be nice to have ford assist. They could provide the auto-cad and possibly the original manufacturer to assist us.

I'm in for a plate as I know mine will again have a problem.
 
I just used silicone...no gasket, after 2 gaskets failed causing me to hurl insults regarding the questionability of my T-Bird being a smelly whore or not.

No leaks yet and the bird is as clean as Mother Teresa
 
2 ways these get warped. Over tightning and leaning on it while working on something else. It sticks out about a foot and this is what mostly warps it. I think a better plan would be to cut the thing off before the turn and get a diffent hose that turns right out of the rad and goes back to the other side and then goes strait into the housing letting that blowr pully show and take away the handle to rest your hand on and bend it again. Just my.02
 
It would be a lot tougher to warp a 3/8 piece then it would the stock piece. I cancelled the order with Innovative Tooling Inc. On saturday, I took the housing off and found that the thermostat slid down on me during installation. I sealed the thermostat much better to the housing lip this time and installed it successfully. Either way, my housing is still warped but I have a new/used on the way that is not warped.

Chris
 
I just used a hammer, shraight edge, and a vise. Worked great with alittle silicone and new gasket. But took me two time to relize it was warped.
 
2 ways these get warped. Over tightning and leaning on it while working on something else. It sticks out about a foot and this is what mostly warps it.

It also warps by over tightening the cooling system "burp" bolt that sits on the housing.
 
My solution to that problem (common on SC's) was to bend the ears back a little on the stat housing (where the bolt holes are located) and make my own gasket. Neither the Ford nor the Felpro fit particularly well, because the overflow/vent hole is either slotted or too large. Then I installed studs in the head which helps a lot when using an aftermarket stat that doesn't lock into the housing, because you can slide the housing on easily and keep it pinned to the head while you tighten the nuts. Having to thread the stock bolts in while holding the housing is usually where things go wrong. Then when you tighten down, the very slightly bent ears help pin the housing on flat and tight. Never had a leak since.
 
That's what I was doing Joisey Jim :cool:

If you have an extra inlet plenum, the studs for the throttle body are the perfect size for thermostat housing studs. You might have to toss a washer or two under the nut (which would be good anyways), but they fit and you won't have to worry about stripping the threads in the intake anymore. I usually bend the ears back also and use the paper gasket with RTV on either side.
 
just get some emery cloth an a flat surface and rub till you see no low spots, bend it if it is extremely warped and emery it again, I did... works fine
 
In my prior attempt to seal the thermostat housing ... I tried using a thin piece of good solid cardboard. However, I was thinking that it could eventually get soaked with coolant and break down, so I layered it over with silicon as well.. well, it did just what I thought, and crumbled apart. Back to the drawing board. :rolleyes:

My latest experiment was to use that flat foam you buy at art and hobby stores. Its about 1/16" thick. I cut out the holes and spread silicon sealant to both the manifold and housing and used my foam gasket inbetween. So far.. no leaks. :D

BTW, I would use an actual gasket if I could get the correct one :rolleyes: Parts stores may have a listing for it, but its usually wrong. :rolleyes:
 
You know, you can buy blank sheets of gasket material at parts stores. But your solution sounds pretty good too.
 
Ive had one of these modified in my car for a long time. It was a prototype that Paul from BTM made with the intentions of mass producing them. It did not fit my car once I made the M112 conversion. If anyone one want to buy it I have it. It works great. Ill post pics.
 
I'm having this problem on my 95 right now. I've gone through two fel-pro gasket in the past 30 days. I've torque the housing down to 15-22 ft lb as the book specified.

I didn't think about it being warped. I'll have to remove it again and check it. Slightly bending the ears back and sand it down a bit sounds like a good idea. I also like the idea of studs as it will be much easier to install that way.
 
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