Coolant leak, new thermostat house gasket
 

Alrighty folks, another noob question for the masses :)

My 81 at some point had a bad leak from the thermostat housing and it was corroded pretty bad. I took the thermostat house off, cleaned it off real good and painted it with a cast iron refurbishing paint. Checked the house and all looked good afterwards.

Anyways, I installed the thermostat house with a new gasket this evening and tightened the bolts "a fair bit"(no torque wrench used.) Everything looked fine until the car heated up and I noticed a tiny bit of coolant coming out between the gasket and house.

What's really strange though is that I saw coolant beaded up on the house itself...note that this was after a short drive so it might have gotten there because of vibration - I would find if very strange if it bled through the house itself.

So, to the question - is there any danger involved in further tightening the bolts (how much load should I put on them?) Also, do you guys recommend using a sealant in addition to the gasket?

tl;dr: Small leak from newly installed thermostat house. How much torque should be applied to bolts? Should sealant be used?

Picture of the leak here (caked coolant is from old leak, still not cleaned up properly): Attachment 48380385

Cheers and thanks!

Cheers to you to!
 

Yes you need sealant on both sides of the new gasket.
A "Fair bit" of tightening should be good, correct torque for those bolts is 22 -32 Ft-lbs (30-44 Nm).

Great, thanks for the info :)

What gasket did you use? I suggest going with one of the Fel-pro gaskets with the build in silicon ring. I think they are under the Printoseal line.

Unfortunately the supply here in town is very limited so I had to go for a stock replacement gasket...not sure what material it was made from but felt sort of like paper. Definitely no silicone ring in it.

Either way, I'll get some sealant today and see if that'll take care of it - thanks for the tip though, I'm sure it won't be the last gasket I replace :)

Here is the FEL-PRO Part # 35562T, for what I use.

Great, thanks!

use this stuff called permatex under the housing on both sides of your gasket and ill bet you never have a leak again . Doesnt hurt to paste some on your threads either when you screw your bolts in either. Its what i use on water pump bolts on the threads that go right through to the water jacket.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...7/permatex.jpg

I'm trying to remember what I did wrong one of the times I put a different temp thermo and gasket. had to put tstat in first into recessed spot for tstat, seat it, then put gasket on.

no sealant..works great. must put tstat in first!

Thats actually what I did, but I probably didn't tighten the bolts enough...going to work on it tonight tho so I'll let you know :)