Last night I was test driving me newly rebuilt Q-Jet (worked great) when I noticed my temperature was abnormally hot.....approaching the red line! Luckily I was close to home and went straight back to my garage. I popped open the hood and saw the overflow boiling...oh crap. I went back & turned on the key to see the temperature and it was pegged!

Anyway I decided to go to the logical culprit.....the thermostat must be stuck....so last night I did a little research and started to freak out a little with people talking about air pockets...drilling holes in the thermostat ect.... It just started to make this simple problem/solution seem so much bigger.

I decided to go with easy and cheapest possible fix 1st...the 180 degree Mr. Gasket "balanced HP thermostat" It is the Robertshaw thermostat everyone talks about sold under the Mr. Gasket name and can be bought at any local parts store for around 8 bucks.



http://www.mr-gasket.com/ProductDeta...ced thermostat

When I pulled the old thermostat I noticed that it was a 195 degree version (is that stock?) and I replaced it with the new mr gasket version. I took the old thermo and stuck it in boiling water just to see what would happen...nothing....

The car now runs cooler than it did before and the temperature hovers around 180 degrees on the dash temp gauge. It used to stay around 220 degrees on a cool day and would go higher at highway speeds or stopped traffic with the A/C on. I took it on the highway with the A/C on and now the temperatures stay at 180.

I purchased the car a few months ago and it always ran warm....I just figured it was the nature of the beast but I was wrong. The old thermostat must have been sticking this whole time and finally gave out last night.

 

The easy (cheap) fixes are the best, aren't they?

 

New Problem...... now my coolant overflow bottle is leaking. the plastic tank is very brittle and needs replaced or it will **** all my coolant out. S#&^$^%$(Y@*!

 

Unless your car is a 73 or earlier, just replace it. No big deal.