Water outlet woes
06-24-2017, 10:41 AM
#1
Water outlet woes
Hey y'all, new guy here from Missouri! Got a wee problem and was wondering if you guys could shed some light on the situation.
I just finished an all-in-all successful 5.0L rebuild for my mom's '90 F-150. This morning I got a couple of problems ironed out so now it runs real nice, but then in my routine checking for leaks, I found that the water outlet gasket was leaking. The outlet I was using originally used a very thick O-ring seal and so I learned that using a gasket on that type doesn't work well. So I decided to try the original one with a new gasket. After I had it all together and had dumped all the coolant back in, it started running out onto the ground! I saw that it was coming from the outlet from behind the lower bolt. Drained it down some, took it all apart again and looked over the outlet in the area of the lower bolt and found no cracks or defects. The thermostat was not cocked at all. I then got a brand new outlet that was poorly designed with a thermostat recess that was too deep (would allow the t-stat to rattle around inside). I filed it down to where the t-stat was fairly flush and went to snug up the bolts. The lower bolt would barely begin to snug up and it would start to strip the threads. It really sucks that it's the lower one because there's no way to tap the hole or anything like that (due to its being so conveniently situated behind the top of the water pump).
Sorry for the long-winded story but I'm hoping you guys can help me out!
I just finished an all-in-all successful 5.0L rebuild for my mom's '90 F-150. This morning I got a couple of problems ironed out so now it runs real nice, but then in my routine checking for leaks, I found that the water outlet gasket was leaking. The outlet I was using originally used a very thick O-ring seal and so I learned that using a gasket on that type doesn't work well. So I decided to try the original one with a new gasket. After I had it all together and had dumped all the coolant back in, it started running out onto the ground! I saw that it was coming from the outlet from behind the lower bolt. Drained it down some, took it all apart again and looked over the outlet in the area of the lower bolt and found no cracks or defects. The thermostat was not cocked at all. I then got a brand new outlet that was poorly designed with a thermostat recess that was too deep (would allow the t-stat to rattle around inside). I filed it down to where the t-stat was fairly flush and went to snug up the bolts. The lower bolt would barely begin to snug up and it would start to strip the threads. It really sucks that it's the lower one because there's no way to tap the hole or anything like that (due to its being so conveniently situated behind the top of the water pump).
Sorry for the long-winded story but I'm hoping you guys can help me out!
06-24-2017, 02:10 PM
#2
Senior Member
If you can get the bolts out just JB weld a set of 3/8" studs into the thermostat bosses. I'd suggest heilcoil, but there is, as you say, not a lot of room there, you would have to at least pull the water pump.