Installing the new waterneck

Today I cleaned everything, removing all the old stuck gasket and oily bits. Pictured is the old thermostat.

I put in the new thermostat and then installed a new gasket and housing. I used gasket sealant on both sides of the gasket and anti seize on the bolts.

I have no leaks after attaching the hose and re-filling the coolant. The engine ran fine after this, gotta take it for a test drive soon!

Removing the thermostat housing bolts

Soooo, the bolts. The stuck, bolts.

There they are. I had already started drilling but I centered the left one off-centre :-/

I was scared the holes wouldn't be blind, leaving metal in the water after drilling. It seemed they were blind holes thankfully.

When trying to re-centre the off-centre hole the bolt unexpectedly came out. Lucky me! Unfortunately the other one was the opposite and it was really stuck. Left turning drills didn't get it out. Vast amounts of penetrating oil didn't do a thing and I didn't even start welding a nut on being so close to the fuel line.

So the only option left (I'm not even taking easy outs into consideration) was to completely drill it out. Thankfully I centered this hole nicely. Being a 5/16 bolt I ended up using a 6.4 mm drill which separated all the threads and made the bolt come apart after which I only needed to pick up the pieces and clean the thread a bit.

I was very pleased when I got this bolt out and it's made me more confident for when it happens next coz I'm sure it will some day!

I did notice one sensor that is not connected to anything. It's not the temperature sensor because that's actually behind the hose (connected to the black wire)...

Removing the thermostat housing

Right. So after my last ride I noticed coolant leaking in 2 places. One was on the radiator where the overflow hose is and the other one is the top hose going to the heater, where it connects to the waterpump. I'm not sure what's causing this but I figure it wouldn't hurt if I replaced the thermostat before I investigate further. I wasn't aware of the little drama that was going to unfold ;-)

Hello engine.

The thermostat sits underneath the thermostat-housing on which also the rop radiator hose connects.
I took off the hose and discovered a great mess underneath.

Cleaned. Ready to be removed!

I managed to get it off. My new one is a lot shinier!

And there is the old thermostat!

Unfortunately both bolts snapped off and are stuck in the block. So there awaits my next challenge...
In order not to get any crap into the cooling system I left the old thermostat in for now.