Leaking coolant - Thermostat

[Solanum1]

Hey guys.

Did an all-round service on my 2002 ZD30 around a month and a bit ago.

Badly needed a coolant change. Took all hoses off, flushed system, new hoses & clamps, new coolant, new high-flo thermostat and O-ring, but didn't go as far as new water pump (really didn't think I needed it). Fan was in a good state with only very slight hairline cracks.

Problem I've got now is I've been trying to trace a leak which started as a weap but is now a leak. This is from around the housing where the thermostat and O-ring are plugged back into the cooling system with the alloy bend/circulating pipe. This is held back into place with 2 x 12mm hex head bolts. I have tightened this right back up to a stage where I dare not tighten anymore, and there is still a weap of coolant coming from the top of this housing.

I suspect I have been given the wrong O-ring for this high flo thermostat as the place of purchase did not have any, and I had to purchase the O-ring elsewhere. Otherwise is there a gasket which can sit back over this housing before it gets bolted back together? There was no such gasket when I took all apart.

Cheers

Theo

 

[bods]

I had a similar issue on a falcon years ago, same setup with the o-ring not sealing... I just threw some gasket maker on there and bunged it back together. Just wiped the excess off from around the outside where it got squeezed out and it was fine. Let it sit for a day after putting it together to let it set a bit and all good... Did the same thing on the actual thermostat housing too as I couldn't get a gasket for it at the time.....

 

[Solanum1]

That's what I ended up going with mate. Had a disastorous day on Sunday... decided just to apply a bit more pressure on those bolts and ended up snapping one, half the thread stuck inside the housing. 2 hours of laying flat across the engine with a pair of long nose vice grips to try and remove the remaining end of bolt bit by bit. Not a great job!

Bit of info for anyone planning to do this job in the future... I installed a highflow thermostat. It appears that most outlets do not have the highflow O-ring already packaged with the theromostat. The only outlet I discovered that does was Repco. I got lucky and cross referenced an O-ring and lucky for me it worked but can see that if someone put the wrong one on, its a long process to do the whole job again!