Thermostat Bolts

[bjrogers86auto]

Rusted and corroded and siezed! Won't budge. Thermostat works fine. Just wanted to replace it since I was doing the hoses.

I even tried the idea of removing the housing from the engine. No dice. Guess I'll keep the thermostat.

Brian.

[RCB]

Us benchrest rifle shooters use an oil called Kroil, the oil that creeps.
We use it for its ability to creep under copper fouling in the barrel..in the valleys of the grooves to be exact.
Ive used this oil on rusted nuts and bolts that refuse to budge.
A few applications will creep into the rust and render it useless.
It might take a saturated solution a few times to soak into the rusted and corroded but I can safely say that eventually work and you will be able to remove those rusted bolts.

[Zero419]

be careful with the plastic housing. There are Heatserts (that's what my model shop calls them) that are bonded/molded/heatserted into the plastic that will spin. One of mine spun. I took a screw gun to it and spun it to the point where the plastic melted and then pulled it out and used a nut and bolt.
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1987 Westy Auto Bostig 2.0 Ztec

[bjrogers86auto]

Thanks for the tips. Not sure I can get Kroil here in Canada unless I order it online. If you know a place ,let me know... I will soak it for the next few days in penetrating oil. It may just stay there until it HAS to be removed.

[GrindGarage]

I have a 91 that broken the plastic cooling junction and decided to replace the thermostat and housing since it was made of the same plastic and was the same age. Those bolts holding the housing to the engine were the biggest PIA ever! Took about 3 hours of soaking / banging on smaller and smaller sockets till I finally got it out with those tools made for stripped bolt heads.
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-cliff

91 Vanagon AUTO
97 Single Port EJ22 all smallcar.com