just found a metal housing kit on e-bay for 42.00. comes with stand , cap, thermostat cover, gaskets, o-rings. got three . one for each car. thermostat cover costs more than that. AJ82217.

 

That may be a good deal, but several members have reported bad threads for the cover or poor sealing surface with bargain housings. I hope the ones you bought are good quality.

 

works good so far. this is not a job for the faint of heart. about 3 hrs. hardest part is getting the 2 rear bolts out from under the intake. unless you have a nice warm shop & special/homemade tools like i do, this should be for when you have the intake off. the cap & frt housing will work on the org.housing. which is still cheaper than the plastic ones.

 

Many of us just break the old one into pieces with pliers, then replace the rear bolts with socket heads and use a ball drive to tighten. Pleased to see the ones you bought are good quality.

 

I just did this on Friday and even though I have a set of ball end hex keys, they didn't work because of the extreme angle. I found my plastic housing already had short socket head cap screws on the back as if it had been replaced once before. I wound up bending a 5mm hex key in a shape that resembles an offset wrench and used a 1/4 drive flex handle and 5mm socket to break them loose. If I didn't already have the socket head screws and already made the tool to remove them in the first place, it looked to me like it would have been much better to get some standard bolts, just slightly shorter for clearance and use a crow's foot. I bought the part on Rockauto a few years ago when I saw it listed for only $36 and just now got around to it. The cap did seem to screw on a little roughly, but it did seal. Other than that the quality seemed good.

 

Would it not be easier to just remove the intake manifold? That's what I have done.

 

The 'quik & dirty' is to remove the 10 M8 manifold bolts (10mm hex head) and GENTLY pry up on the front of the manifold with a LONG prybar.

Only pry up as far as needed to gain access to the fasteners.

The rubber type intake seals will seal again as long as you make sure no debris gets between the surfaces. (clean thoroughly with solvent & compressed air)

The throttle elbow will pivot on the 2 fasteners enough to get the housing removed/installed.

If you are replacing the heater supply/return hoses, then just remove the manifold and be done with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bob gauff