UNL1MTD Posted December 15, 2008 Author Share Posted December 15, 2008 :fs1: started her up today and it took about 20 seconds before I had a steady stream of coolant pissing out from the Tstat housing. I don't suppose I can reuse that gasket, can I? Was it a mistake to put RTV on both sides of the gasket like it is recommended in the Haynes manual? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 I believe the gasket that comes from the factory already has sealant on it. If you used a Jeep part, you weren't supposed to put RTV on it. You should be able to reuse it, if you can take it apart without tearing the gasket. This time you WILL need RTV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 I believe the gasket that comes from the factory already has sealant on it. If you used a Jeep part, you weren't supposed to put RTV on it. You should be able to reuse it, if you can take it apart without tearing the gasket. This time you WILL need RTV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UNL1MTD Posted December 16, 2008 Author Share Posted December 16, 2008 I believe the gasket that comes from the factory already has sealant on it. If you used a Jeep part, you weren't supposed to put RTV on it. You should be able to reuse it, if you can take it apart without tearing the gasket. This time you WILL need RTV. yea I did use a mopar seal and it did have a very small raised rubberish portion on one side of the gasket. The haynes manual was specific to put RTV on both sides so I did and it didn't work out. Oh well. I will try to reuse the gasket with a healthier dose of RTV this time. I was very conservative last time, maybe that was an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Your mistake was in believing Haynes. Aftermarket t-stat gaskets typically do not have the sealant factory applied, so for those you would need RTV. The factory ones don't need it. Haynes doesn't tell you that. If you plan to work on your rig much at all, do yourself a HUGE favor -- lose the Haynes, and buy a factory service manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UNL1MTD Posted December 29, 2008 Author Share Posted December 29, 2008 I was able to take some time this morning and fix my botched install. I took it apart to find that I missed a small bit of the old gasket on the block right where it was leaking. So that was probably the smoking gun as to why it didn't seal the first time, along with too much RTV and the stock gasket. I was not able to reuse the gasket at all. I just cleaned everything very well and used RTV. I let it set up for 2 hrs before adding fluid. Another 1 hr before I started the truck. I got a bit nervous while it was warming up because the coolant didn't suck down like it has in the past. I did do a lot of pumping on the upper radiator hose prior to turning it on and I must have expelled most of the air then. Once it hit 210ish the upper radiator hose got hot and the needle never moved much past that. I put about 10 miles of varied driving on it and the coolant temp needle still floated a bit but no more than a 5 degree deviation, which is a lot better. Essentially it moves from one side of the 210 white hash to the other and back. Except not nearly as predictable and its not constantly moving. I think the new tstat fixed it. Thanks for all the help along the way. Super glad I put the full gauge cluster in. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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