I'll try backing the screws out and then try to equally torque them. Hopefully it's just a problem of inaccurate torquing. Can you elaborate when you say line the 3 bolts up correctly?

 

Inside that 3-bolt thermostat "lid", is a small cutaway to facilitate the correct positioning of the thermostat in the tower itself. If you do not have the thermostat aligned with that cutaway the thermostat could hold the cover away from its seating position when you tighten it.

If you are unsure if you have the thermostat aligned, drain a little coolant from the radiator, remove the hose, and the thermostat tower cover, and check for that alignment.

 

Here is a picture of the "slot" in the tower cap (red arrow) that locates the thermostat jiggle-pin in the 12-o-clock/1-o-clock position to prevent air locks.

 

Thanks for the info and pics! I just got off of work and planning to check everything out tomorrow morning. From what I remember, my thermostat cover has a different interior. I have done a quick drawing in blue. I think it serves the same purpose - to correctly orient the thermostat. Will double check tomorrow


I'll drain a little coolant tomorrow and snap a few pics of the thermostat / housing and post back. It's curious though that the PO had applied a significant amount of sealant around the thermostat seal / gasket. I literally had to rip pieces away to get it out of the thermostat housing. It was still very rubbery and not brittle but took an hour or two to scrape away and clean the residue. Maybe this was how the PO dealt with a leak in this area?

 

Not sure, but I think what you are thinking of (in blue in your pic) will be the "blade" that is opposite the indent. The indent goes at 12-o-clock/1-o-clock, and the blade goes at 6-o-clcok.

 

Removed the thermostat cover. You are correct, the indent is 12 o’clock and blade around 6 o’clock.

I dont see any cracks in the housing housing or cover. The gasket still looks intact.






Thoughts?

 

The only thing I can think of to check would be to check the flat surfaces of the thermostat tower and the cap. If you take a flat surface (preferably a pane of glass) and some very fine sandpaper (200 grain) and lightly rub the mating surfaces over the sandpaper it should show contact with the complete mating surfaces, if it doesn't it will indicate that the unit has probably been over tightened at some time and is bowed. Although the gasket should compensate for any such slight deviation.

 

So after removing, cleaning, re-torquing, no leaks! The thermostat cover held up really well. I decided to refill the system and take it for a drive. Fans came on normally, gauge stayed in the middle with no overheating. I did a quick stop in the neighborhood to see if the cover was leaking and it still looked good.

I did however notice that the leaky valve cover gasket area, which prompted this whole install, was still smoking.

Upon getting the car back in the driveway, a geyser went off near the coolant crossover pipe. Coolant everywhere lol but the hood was still off. After looking at everything, I realized that I failed to move the spring clamp into place...ugh!



Live and learn. Need to double check everything lol. I'll fix it tomorrow and refill the coolant, will hopefully be back to normal.

Regarding the burning area near the metal under the valve cover, I'm not sure if the smoke is from residual oil that I didn't clean and is burning off? Or is it a new leak? I replaced all gaskets with OEM stuff (valve cover gasket, spark plug o-rings, valve cover washer seals, etc...) and torqued to spec without over tightening. People have mentioned that the covers may be warped but not sure how to tell? Hopefully it is just old oil sludge getting hot. I''ll try to squeeze in there and clean it all away to be sure. Here are a few borescope pics: