Thermostat housing

[xtascox]

So after a long night of flushing the heater core and putting in a new thermostat, I start her up and immediately see coolant dripping from the bottom of the thermostat housing. I shut the car off and instead of being smart and checking the thermostat gasket, I tighten the torx screws and snap one

I'm ridin to the junkyard tomorrow with Pen_Two and I'm going to grab a new housing.

Does anyone know if I need a certain year or will any fit? I compared it to a '96 on 96MystiqueGS's car and it looked pretty much the same with the same bolt, pattern, just the lower section was a different shape.

[cetroutt]

i'm fairly sure that they are all the same.

[Lavell]

Yes, they are all the same. I completed this project 9 months ago. It was a pain in the a$$. Instead of flushing the heater core, I ended up replacing it. I replaced the thermostat as well. So I can relate as to what you're going through.

[xtascox]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm going to grab an older and newer style just for kicks. I like the fact that the older housing uses bolts instead of torx screws.

To the junkyard!

[striker2]

the older ones are less prone to having problems leaking or cracking as well.

[mcgarvey]

I'm not sure if you're talking about the "nipple" section that the upper hose goes onto, or the squarish housing that bolts to the cylinder head. If it's the latter, be careful as the sealing groove commonly fails on these. It's hard to explain but basically oil seepage from the valve cover drips down and makes the o-ring swell, which breaks the groove. It happened to mine even though there was only a light film of oil on the side of the head before replacing the valve cover gasket. Even replacing the o-ring will not cure the leak. At that point you will need to either replace the housing or use silicone RTV to seal the housing to the head, since it's more forgiving of imperfections (also makes disassembly a pain).

Good luck!

[xtascox]

I'm not sure if you're talking about the "nipple" section that the upper hose goes onto, or the squarish housing that bolts to the cylinder head. If it's the latter, be careful as the sealing groove commonly fails on these. It's hard to explain but basically oil seepage from the valve cover drips down and makes the o-ring swell, which breaks the groove. It happened to mine even though there was only a light film of oil on the side of the head before replacing the valve cover gasket. Even replacing the o-ring will not cure the leak. At that point you will need to either replace the housing or use silicone RTV to seal the housing to the head, since it's more forgiving of imperfections (also makes disassembly a pain).

Good luck!

I know exactly what you are talking about because that groove was broken on the one I pulled off my car so it was probably going to be leaking soon anyway.

On another note, here's what I found out today:

The housing is relatively the same on all years of Zetec contiques.

The housing is different on Zetec escorts.

The bolt pattern to the block on contiques is different from that of the focus/cougar housing.

The housing on the focus and cougar are identical, except the cougar has two sensors that are held into the housing by metal clips. The focus has spots for these two sensors but they are not drilled through and the lower has no spot for a clip.

The end result? I have a cougar, which is noted in my sig. I grabbed one off a focus because it looked exactly the same. Could I use it? Yes. Will I? No. The reasons being that even after drilling the spots for the sensors, there still is no groove to put the clip through that will hold in the lower sensor. I could get out the dremel and make the groove but I'd rather put in the correct part. I'll keep this one as something to play with since I already drilled out spots for the sensors.

Time to call the dealer bright an early. If they don't have any in stock, I'm ordering from teamford since they are only $16 through them.

I love not being able to drive anywhere