okay heres the deal. I'm seeing hard crusty coolant around the thermostat housing area. I checked the top radiator hose and thats okay. I also checked the thermostat and gasket. seems to be okay as well. so then what the hay is wrong? the resevoir is at the max line when the car is driven hard and when its cold the resevoir tank is near the minimum line. whats going on here?

 

bump for explanation?

 

Is the crusty part around the T stat housing were the 3 bolts hold the t-stat in? If it is then the gasket is leaking.

Resvoir fills up when pressure increases ( heat ) in the cooling system. The cap holds pressure at around 15-17 psi. If it goes over that. Coolant is then bled off to the reservoir.

As the motor cools down . It creates a vaccum in the system and pulls coolant off the reservoir.



.

 

yea its the t stat housing but, I checked the gasket and it looks fine........which is weird. Should I replace the thermostat and gasket together or just the gasket?

 

Well if there is crust around it then it's leaking right ? As long as your sure it's not coming off from a loose clamp hose that is dripping over the housing .

Just the gasket will do.


.

 

i have 32k on my car. How often does the thermostat need to be changed? every 60k ?

 

bump I also need to know if the thermostat housing (the area that connects to the cylinder head) is required to use a gasket from mitsu or just a liquid gasket from permatex that you get at pep boys, or both. please someone answer.

 

The manual says to use the 3M Mitsu liguid gasket but i guess the permatex would be alright, just give it plenty of time to dry

 

Make sure you used the Ultra Grey stuff.

 

yes thats exactly what I did, hew: I thought I need to reinstall. Everything seems fine now I guess. But I dont understand why mitsu would just put a crappy gasket in there in the first place. It leaked like a mother.