problem=thermostat housing

found a pinhole leak in my radiator the other day while trying to figure out why this thing overheats. seems to me that coolant is escaping, air is getting in, and air=:flame:

went in to pour some stop-leak through my top radiator hose, decided to replace thermostat for the hell of it, because it's old and i have extras laying around. went to mount up the thermostat housing, and the head of the bottom bolt broke off.

the way i see it, i have two options.
remove the belt, radiator and fans and try to extract the busted bolt.

or, my personal favorite, temporary fix. with all the gaskets, silicones, JB welds and stuff in my garage, what are my chances of getting this thing sealed properly without leaking, and only the top bolt?

anybody got any experience with this happening??? i've already bought a new housing/gasket just because they're cheap and the old one was rusted inside and out. really don't want to pull the radiator and all that mess unless i absolutely have to, so any knowledge in adhesives or anything would be appreciated.

HuntMarsh said:

remove the belt, radiator and fans and try to extract the busted bolt.

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Yes. This.

It may be possible to get the bolt out without removing the radiator and fans depending on how it broke off - but if you think you've got problems now with a pinhole leak in the radiator, wait until the RTV / silicone / JB Weld job on the thermostat housing lets go on top of that. Chances are that it'll make the hour or two you spend getting that bolt out of there look tame by comparison.

casm said:

Chances are that it'll make the hour or two you spend getting that bolt out of there look tame by comparison.

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so wait, i may be way off here, but how long exactly do you think it should take me to remove all this?

HuntMarsh said:

so wait, i may be way off here, but how long exactly do you think it should take me to remove all this?

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Not knowing the exact circumstances of how the bolt is broken off, there's no accurate way for me (or anyone else) to answer that.

If just the head of the bolt came off, it may be possible to cut a groove in the bolt face and turn it out. It may even be possible to grab the bolt shaft with pliers or vise grips and get it out that way; heat and/or PB Blaster may help with one or both of these approaches.

You may also be really screwed and have to pull the front clip to be able to get in there and drill it out. But I'd budget a couple of hours to try the first couple of suggestions, and, if they don't work, go from there.

If just the head broke off go after it with a torch and some PB Blaster, alternating heat/PB Blaster/heat/PB Blaster a few times and then turn it out with vice grips.

It won't seal without the two bolts.

I recommend you replace the broken and other bolt with SS hardware and plenty of anti-seize. Might even consider using SS studs instead of bolts--if you do that Loctite the studs in.