Cheapo thermostats

[SparkandFire]

I almost wasted another IDI this past week...

The '85 black truck has always ran cool, except sometimes when stuck in traffic, which is why I locked the fan clutch. I knew the thermostat was probably stuck open, except last Friday on my way home from work. It decided it was now a good time to get stuck closed. I nursed it home slowly, stopping every five minutes to cool it down.

I had a new Motorcraft thermostat ready to go in, just had been putting it off...

Here is what I found... Almost lost a'nother one on account of a $9 Chinese thermostat.

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[icanfixall]

Now thats a close call... Kinda a just in time repair... Did you install that pos from china or was it in the system when you got the engine. I have never seen a thermostat break like that. Another very good reason with pics to only run the factory motorcraft thermostats. I hope you send that to Mel for his rally museum stuff. He has lots of "treasures" like this...

 

[SparkandFire]

This little beauty was in there when I bought the truck... Almost put it off a little too long.

I think what happens is that when the thermostat opens, it moves down (into the block) to let coolant flow, and "supposedly" block off the recirc hole at the bottom. The motorcraft thermostat actually has a copper plug that fits inside the recirc hole, where as the "china special" t-stat just sort of covers the hole. This one is physically taller than the motorcraft one, so I think what happened was when the unit opened up, it jams against the block. After it did that enough times, those little stamped metal supports cracked and broke. After one side broke, the whole assembly got jammed half open, then it jammed shut...

 

[OLDBULL8]

Yup, Save a buck, then possible Hundreds to fix the save a buck. Man, you are having problems lately.

When ya gonna make the engine swap, that's close to not having one to swap.

Only Motorcraft or IH t'stats.

 

[SparkandFire]

Engine swap looks like it's on for the weekend of Aug. 4th - This weekend the wife's sister will be at our place, so I am the designated driver for them.. I pulled the '94 into the driveway to prep it for the operation yesterday. Clutch kit is in and ready. I hate waiting to do a project...

 

[OLDBULL8]

Here is another T'stat a guy put in my 90 before I bought it, almost lost that engine. Well I did eventually, damn thing cavitated #6 cyl., only had it for three weeks then. First pic is when he tried to bend the edge to keep it open. Last pic is when the gasket blew out.

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[Agnem]

Wow! Yeah. We've preached thousands if not millions of times in here how only a Motorcraft thermostat will do. Yet people still push the envelope. I can see trying to save a few bucks on something you buy every week. But when it is something you expect to get years if not decades of service out of, I can't fathom why you would try to go cheap.

 

[SparkandFire]

I've had enough bad experiences with cooling issues on these trucks to take any chances on something as trivial as a $20 thermostat. I've added "Thermostat R&R" to my list of initial maintenance items when I get a new-to-me IDI (right after oil change....)

 

[OLDBULL8]

Forgot to mention, the pic of the gasket shows the air bleed hole blocked off, that dark circle at the bottom of it. Dumb F*** even had the wrong gasket on it.

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