Broken thermostat housing bolt, help!

its been awhile since i've been on here, i had to take the jeep off the road temporarily, and today i was replacing the upper radiaotor hose, the heater hose, and the thermostat. i cleaned both the housing surface where it mates to the block, and i cleaned the block. scraped off the old gasket, put everything together(i used blue sealant on the gasket, and when i was filling the anti-freeze, i noticed that it was leaking out the bottom of the thermostat housing. i tore everything down, cleaned everything again, and it was still leaking. i did this a 3rd time, and in the process of tightening down the bottom bolt, the bolt head broke, and the rest was jammed in the block. i was barely able to remove the remainder with a pair of pliers. me and a frirend went to home depot, and 4 hardware stores with the top bolt, and nobody sells anything that was a direct match(WTF). i figured worst case scenario, the dealer would have em. Went to my local dealer and they listed TWO part #'s for the bolts. Each bolt had its own number. I figure maybe the bolts are different sizes, and maybe i mixed em up when reinstalling everything. that would be the only feasible reason I see for having 2 part #'s. But prob. is, the dealer says he can't order them, and he has none in stock and no other dealers have em either. sugeestions??

It should be a metric bolt and you should be able to find one at a real hardware store. Otherwise, try a fastner house if you live in or near a large town.

my problem is though, i don't know if the bolts are the same size or not. The dealer's computer listed 2 part #'s, which leads me to believe that the bolts are different sizes. Would buying an aftermarket t-stat housing be a better route, and would it come with the bolts?

Just buy 2 of each and take the two unused back. As for the gasket use the dealer supplied one, it has the sealant already on there. I HATE rtv, especially on something important that has to withstand pressure, it sucks for that.

I have a parts breakdown that shows P/N J4006985 and J4006951 for those bolts on a 1991 4.0L engine. Double check with the dealer.

My setup has two different length bolts which makes sense if you saw my housing. Possible explanation for two separate P/Ns?

The aftermarket housings I've used have been pretty sh*tty. Never fit quite right and made of cheap pot metal or some crap. I'd go with a dealer bought housing.

Thanks for the info everybody, now if i bought the housing at a dealer, would the bolts come with it, and how much does a housing usually cost? Thanks!

Go to a boneyard and get the houseing with the bolts. I think I paid 5 bucks for the housing but I didn't take the bolts.

The housing will not come with the bolts.

I don't recall getting the bolts for either the dealer or aftermarket thermostat housing. I believe the dealership housing ran me about $30-$40 3 years ago which I thought was kinda steep until I bought the crappy Autozone and NAPA ones.

BTW. Make sure that thermostat is seated in the opening securely and flush or it will slip slightly when you tighten the bolts. You won't really notice it slip but it will leak. The housing will look fine and flush against the engine but the housing will definitely leak. After about 4 tries one time my friend made me of aware of this reason why I couldn't put that housing back on without it leaking. He dabbed a tiny bit of weatherstrip adhesive on the thermostat to hold it against the hole, let it dry for a few minutes and then put the housing on. No leak. I was concerned about the glue but he said it would lose it's adhesion by the time I changed out the thermostat in the future. I can't verify this info about the glue but it worked for me and I haven't had any problems pulling the housing off. Perhaps a dab of RTV will work just as well. I think the main thing is to not let that thermostat slip down whereby causing a slight gap for a leak.

Also. It looks like the bolt P/Ns for my 1987 are the same as yours. Are you sure the dealer couldn't order them?