How do you find and replace the thermostat on a 1997 Transport?

Answer 1

Allow the engine to cool off so you can work with out getting burned, and the bolts might have a tendency to seize in the aluminum if the engine is too warm. Remove the air intake hose from the throttle body and the air cleaner housing. Pull the hose out of the overflow tank, then remove the radiator cap and .Drain the coolant from the radiator so that it is below the level of the exhaust cross over pipe on that end of the engine. The drain valve is a white plastic fitting that is on the side of the bottom part of the radiator, There is a special tool to loosen it, but I successfully use my pliers with out damaging anything. if the coolant is rusty or you think it is time to be changed, you would drain it completely. You would also remove the bottom radiator hose to let more coolant out of the engine. Your also doing all this draining into an appropriate container to prevent contamination of the shop floor or the ground out side if that's where tour working. Antifreeze is attractive because it has a sweet smell, and it is poisoness to all animals like cats and dogs and children if it is drained out recklessly. The thermostat housing has the top radiator hose connected to it, and I find it easiest to remove that hose from the hiusing, the it is one less thing in the way. Youy can also fold and tie back that hose to keep it out of your way. The recommendation is to remove the exhaust cross over pipe, but I have changed mine two times with out removing that pipe. It is probably more difficult to remove the housing, but I prefer to do it that way, because it is one less set of gaskets to buy and make sure are installed correctrly. Once you have the two bolts out of the thermostat housing, you may have to tap lightly on the housing to break it loose. Once you have the cap off the thermostat will probably still be in the casting on the motor, and you'll need to pull it and the rubber gasket out before you can clean the housing up a little to remove any scale that might be there. The proper thermostat has a fused link that literally designed to melt the first time the engine over heats. On my vehicle the colant fans didn't start soon enough to keep the temperature down and the engine got hot enough to over heat the thermostat. it didn't get hot enough to damage the engine, but it did get hot enough to destroy that fused link, so I had to do it two times and the second time I used the cheaper thermostat with no ill effects. Of course that one costs about $32.00 and the same size and everthing else with out that feature is about $17.00, so that is the one I used the second time. Install the new thermostat and gasket, and hold the housing in place while you get the bolts in and snugged up. Be sure to have the housing sitting nice and flat before you tighten the bolts, because it is not unheard of to actually break the housing if everything is not in place corectly before you tighten the bolts. Replace the rad hoses, and close the drain valve. Fill the rad full, then re-install the air intake rubber duct to the air cleaner and the throttle body. This will give the coolant time to settle down and begin letting air escape from the engine. Keep a watch on that coolant level and keep topping it off until the level doesn't drop anymore. Run the engine for half a minute or so, and you will see the coolant level drop some more, so you top it up yet again. Now you replace the Rad cap and run the engine until it warms up to operating temperature. While your watching this you would replace the hose into the overflow tank and fill the tank about half full. Once the engine has warmed up and you have checked and corectred any leaks, you shut off the engine and let it cool off. You are looking for the coolant level to drop in the over flow tank, and you need to add more if it looks as it is going to emoty completely. After all that you top up the overflow tank and that's it you are finished.