Apparently the sarcasm didn't come through.
A lot of Durango owners with the 318 and 360 have had coolant leakage
problems at the thermostat housing. When I swapped my thermostat, I
found a large amount of green crust on the housing and the manifold - it
took quite a bit of work to clean all the gunk off. I think it's a safe
assumption that it was coolant leaking out, and minerals in the water
they filled the radiator with calcifying.
The thermostat housing has 2 little nubs on it that are supposed to mate
up with 2 dimples on the intake manifold. They're meant to locate &
align the housing properly. The problem is, they also cause the gasket
to get a poor seal, and thus leak.
The DOC solution (which I applied) is to grind the nubs off the housing
with a Dremel, leaving you with a smooth surface for the gasket to mate
to. I also applied a healty layer of high temperature RTV to both sides
of the gasket. Almost 1000 miles later, things are clean and dry in the
area where I previously had the green crust.
jay & dana wrote:
>
> Hi Andy
>
> Could you elaborate a little more on this (if you know), about the factory
> installed coolant system sealing features.
>
> TTYL
> Jay
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andy Levy <andylevy@bigfoot.com>
> To: dakota-truck-moderator@twisted.twistedbits.net
> <dakota-truck-moderator@twisted.twistedbits.net>
> Date: Saturday, December 02, 2000 2:39 PM
> Subject: Re: DML: Winter and No Heat!
>
> >I, too, was low on coolant when I swapped my thermostat. Not a full
> >gallon, but enough to concern me. I think there are some special
> >factory-installed coolant system sealing features (aka LEAKS) on the
> >V8s.
-- -andyhttp://home.twcny.rr.com/andylevy/ --- andylevy@bigfoot.com ------------------------------------------------------------- modesty, n.: Being comfortable that others will discover your greatness -------------------------------------------------------------
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