I’m sure most of you are familiar with the venerable Old School Chevy Small Block Thermostat and housing.
Two bolts, one gasket and one hose clamp. Everything is right up front and on top.
My Wife’s 2004 Ford Focus has a plastic thermostat housing, which at $150, has already had to be replaced TWICE because it cracked and started leaking.
Now get a load of this fucking horse shit,
Whoever came up with that fucking nightmare should have had the taste slapped out of his mouth.
I swear on my Mother’s grave that if I somehow manage to outlive the old Dodge truck I drive right now, that I am going to scour the internet until I find a reasonably priced early 60’s Ford truck that isn’t rotted out and I am doing whatever it takes to make it run and drive.
I absolutely will not pay money for one of these later pieces of shit for any reason.
I’m right there with ya on that. My 03 dakota is as new as I want to get.
My 2014 is getting a seal replaced (300k), the dealership gave me a loaner f-150 2025. It rides nice but took me 30 minutes to turn off most of the nanny features. It beeps at you when you shut it off to verify you checked the back seat for your kids. What sort of airhead needs a reminder?
Airheads, of course. The world is full of ’em.
1998 F-150 4.6 L 391,600
2010 Jeep Liberty, 3.7 L 398,300
3rd engine in each, but transmissions are original ( I ran a transmission shop for 15 years and know not to abuse them…)
My 2005 Mustang had a plastic thermostat housing. If you had one that did not need to be replaced every 30K miles you had a good one. Min finally failed at 125K. I replaced it and the “new” plastic one failed 15K miles later. At that point I popped for the “upgrade” and procured what? You guessed it… a CAST ALUMINUM unit. I was not going to play with a cooling system with an achilles heel like THAT in SW FL.
That “THING” in the video? HOLY SHIT.
That’s about as smart as installing an ELECTRIC water pump in a car.
Oh that’s right…. German Engineering. BMW does that stupid shit.
And yet, there are people who still fawn over vehicles designed and built in a country that lost two wars in a row.
And put starters inside the tranny bell housing.
2001 Silverado, bought it new, 160K miles on it. Only on-going (for some years now) is minor coolant loss. Maybe 2 cups worth in 150 miles. 99% of my driving is short errands, 5-10 miles. Lots heat up then cool down. Truck sits for a week at a time. No sighs of external leak, even with pressure test. Starts right up, idles smooth as glass, runs great. Oil looks fine, no steam from tail pipe. Even tried a new cap on the overflow tank. No change.
Yeah, my intent is that it will outlive me.
Saving $ on anti-freeze allows rust to form and disable the thermostat. Sometimes it’s rusted closed and is a problem. Just remove the thermostat.
You obviously don’t live in the Great White North…
That abomination is a result of hiring kids right out of engineering school. When I become president no one will be allowed to design anything until they’ve spent at least 10 years working on whatever it is they’re trying to design….automotive, aviation, HVAC….no exceptions. And par 3 holes on golf courses will be banned. Vote for me!
Love my square body Chevy.
Let’s remember though, the old-school thermostat housings made of pot metal that reliably and predictably broke when you got ANYWHERE NEAR the specified torque for its bolts! Then again, replacing one of those usually cost maybe $5.00… I used to just buy a new housing when I flushed the cooling system…
Goobermint mandate, for another way to disable your vehicle. Mofo’s are evil.
Plastic, because they DGAF once you buy it.
Don’t forget the rubber timing belt on chebys that have mandatory 100k or 200k change out to maintain warranty. Did I mention it’s on the backside of the engine.
Not just Chebbys, Bear Claw – I remember Dodge Neon needing a new timing belt at 75K, among others. Seems the automotive Engineers don’t understand that a vehicle can last over 100K miles now. GONE are the days when things wore out under 100K miles…