Noob question... where is the thermostat on a 93SS?

[Smoothinto2nd]

I've searched and everyone just says they did it now how or where. I assume this is because it's somewhere ridiculously obvious. I'm just new to these cars and have never messed with the cooling system before.

[93forestpearl]

It is where the lower radiator hose connects to the motor. There is a little housing that the hose slips on to. The thermostat resides behind that housing.



FYI, use an OEM thermostat. Nothing compares to the Subaru unit.

[Smoothinto2nd]

It is where the lower radiator hose connects to the motor. There is a little housing that the hose slips on to. The thermostat resides behind that housing.



FYI, use an OEM thermostat. Nothing compares to the Subaru unit.

Thank you!

And ya I've got a Subaru OEM thermostat and new gasket.

[Smoothinto2nd]

ok so before I pull a stupid this here:



is the thermostat housing right?

I need to drain the anitfreeze I assume as there's a pipe running straight from the bottom of the radiator to it right?

Any advice before I do this? I'm good enough working with cars this is just the first time I've done one of these.

[BSOD2600]

Right.

Bleeding air out of the turbo coolant system is a pain (for most). Just take your time, making sure to get out the air bubbles in the various lines. Some park the car on a slight incline to help with the air bubbles during warmup.

[Smoothinto2nd]

Right.

Bleeding air out of the turbo coolant system is a pain (for most). Just take your time, making sure to get out the air bubbles in the various lines. Some park the car on a slight incline to help with the air bubbles during warmup.

What is the process for doing that? It's called burping the system or something right? It's also a good idea to reuse the coolant to right?

edit: I guess I'm pretty much looking for a walk through on how to change the thermostat. The radiator is draining as I type.

[Smoothinto2nd]

fuck fuck fuck!!!!

I just broke off one of the two bolts holding the thermostat housing in place while tighting it back into place... what do I do now?

[kimokalihi]

Now you have to get an EZ out and drill a small hole in the bolt and use the EZ bit to back it out. Then get new bolts. I'm not sure but you may need to remove your radiator to get enough room and depending on the drill and location of the bolt you may have to get 90 degree drill or 90 degree attachment for your drill. Soak the bolts with PB blaster to help break them loose.

[Josh222]

It might be easier to just remove the water pump and drill out the broken bolt off the car. Whens the last time you changed the timing belt and water pump? Maybe use this as an excuse to do those.

[ericem]

remove the housing spin whats sticking out with vice grip why are you replacing the t stat anyway ?

[kimokalihi]

Yeah, good question. Thermostats rarely go bad. It's just a spring.

[Smoothinto2nd]

I've been having some weird heat issues where the temperature slowly creeps up and doesn't drop down unless I go over 4000rpm. It was an odd looking thermostat that was in there I'm assuming non OEM. No it's embarrassing I snapped the bolt tightening it back on. I was using a stubby wrench and didn't realize I was getting as much leverage as I obviously did. It's holding and not leaking for the moment and seems to have solved the problem.

I might as well see if there's enough sticking out to try ericem's idea but I have a feeling since I was tightening it, it will have snapped of to low.

I guess it would probably be easier to take the water pump out of the car and get the bolt on on a bench. How much of a job would I be getting into removing it? Would it just be re draining the cooling system again and taking something bigger off this time or is there a lot more involved?

Its got a new timing belt so I'm not to worried about that.

[kimokalihi]

Nothing to it. Super easy to remove the water pump. There's either 6 or 8 bolts and it comes right off. You need a new OEM gasket though.

[Smoothinto2nd]

Nothing to it. Super easy to remove the water pump. There's either 6 or 8 bolts and it comes right off. You need a new OEM gasket though.

ok. That'll be how I do it when I fix that then. I'm sure I'll post some more questions in a week or two when I get to it. Thanks again for your help everyone.

[Legacy777]

Yeah, good question. Thermostats rarely go bad. It's just a spring.

That's not necessarily true. There's more to it than just a spring. There's a wax pellet that heats up and causes the valve to open. The spring just provides the pressure to close the valve when the wax pellet cools.