96 850T botched head gasket job?

850TurboTurtle · Post by **850TurboTurtle** » 02 Oct 2013, 18:39

The lame mechanic on my head gasket job (um - full disclosure: that would be me) forgot to fully torque all the bolts on the thermostat housing. Now it is weeping, and even spurting when hot.

Two questions:
Can this explain seeing water dripping at the inner timing belt cover bolt just above the water pump pulley? (Will the water drain back that way on some ledge, enough to cause a slow drip there?) I'm hoping so, or my head gasket job may have failed somewhere else.

and

Is there a good tutorial for removing the thermostat housing (not just the top, but the main part that bolts to the head)? I haven't found anything yet for just that. I'll have to remove the power steering pump and serpentine belt I know. Is there anything else to be aware of/careful about?

Heres a video of the weep. The round sensor with a wire is the water temp sensor under the thermo housing. Sorry it's diagonal - hard place to get a camera.

Finally, I need to devise a suitable punishment for that mechanic... suggestions?

850TurboTurtle · Post by **850TurboTurtle** » 02 Oct 2013, 20:33

RSPI has a great youtube tutorial on removing the power steering pump, which should get me access to those bolts according to other posts. Here's the link for anyone in the future who is wondering about accessing the lower thermostat housing bolts.

I'll post again on how it goes...

850TurboTurtle · Post by **850TurboTurtle** » 03 Oct 2013, 01:23

I removed the power steering pump and used a long t handle torn driver to tighten the lower screw as much as I could by hand (it turned about 1/4 to 1/2 turn further. Then tightened the two upper screws to 20 ft lbs because I couldn't find anywhere that mentioned torque specs. Well, the housing cracked at the bottom while tightening it. Now I start over at pull a part. What are those torque specs??

850TurboTurtle · Post by **850TurboTurtle** » 06 Oct 2013, 11:10

Torque specs appear to be 15 ft lbs. Which is about snugged down and a quarter turn on my car (using the original torx bolts, and checking it with an torque gauge after doing it by hand.) Not very tight. I must have been around 25 ft lbs the first time, trying to tighten it up to reduce the weeping.

My best guess is that the Victor Reinz gasket dimensions were a little off. Hard to believe, but I remember the screws were very hard to get through the holes, and the gasket was bulging at all the screw holes. I think that both kept it from sealing well and also created a gap making it possible to crack when tightened further.

The pull a part housing I got was a little warped on the flange, so I took it to the same machine shop that did the head and they gave it 5 seconds on a belt sander so it had a perfect surface. It went on easy. Used a thin coat of rtv blue on the gasket and assembled to torque as mentioned above - very easy. Now it works fine.

Post by **rspi** » 06 Oct 2013, 15:46

Good to hear that is all behind you now.

Post by **sdube** » 18 Oct 2013, 14:11

I had the same thing happen to me when I went replace the thermostat, I cracked the darn housing and had to remove quite a few parts to get to the lower bolt clearly.

Yes, when it leaked it seemed as if the leak was from behind the timing cover....