If I ever get my hands on the bastard engineer...

Supracentral

Active Member
Mar 30, 2005
10,542
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..who designed the thermostat housing on the 7M-GTE, I will kill him.

I got up this morning to go help out QYV with his MKIV. Nothing major, just wiring up the primary wires and relays, etc for the dual in tank Walbros on his T-66 car. Should have been a pleasant day.

However, my MKIII's temp gauge has been behaving oddly for the last few days. Sudden temp spikes, etc.

The cooling system on this car is solid. New factory radiator, brand new Toyota fan shroud (complete with bottom piece), Good set of aux fans, good fan clutch on the mechanical fan, etc.

So I suspect that the thermostat has gone bad bad. I figure before I leave, I'll just pop the T-stat out to see if it goes away and pick up a new thermostat on the way back. 5 minute job - right?

WRONG

One thermostat housing bolt came off with no problem, the other one snapped.

God dammit! Who the fuck uses an 8mm bolt to hold ANYTHING together? Fuck.

So I drill out the end of the bolt and put an easy out in it. Snap. Easy out breaks off in the bolt...

Now I've got a piece of hardened metal in there. I'm never going to drill that out - double fuck!!!!

So now I've removed:

Radiator
Fan Shroud
Aux Fans
Belts
Hoses
Fan
PS Reservoir
CPS
Turbo coolant lines
Sensor wires
etc....

In order to get the damned housing off the block and replace it with a spare that I have. I have to do this because it appears the damned bolt has completely fused to the fucking housing, the damned piece of easy out won't come out and even if it did I don't have an 8mm tap handy...

This is not what I wanted to spend my Saturday doing...

::grumble::
 

Mk3runner

Supramania Contributor
Nov 19, 2006
2,033
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Nor Cal
Been there myself... Although at the time I had a matco tap and die set.

Maybe anti seize next time? It helped me.
 

enjoi.this

Formerly ChrisC
Aug 18, 2008
674
0
16
Kelowna, BC
Shitty deal on that one, gets to me too when bolts just snap off..
One thing that could have helped would be to heat up the housing with a propane torch. stubborn bolts are such a PITA!
 

Supracentral

Active Member
Mar 30, 2005
10,542
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I think it may have been almost ready to go break before I touched it, as I barely (and I mean barely) put any pressure on it. I was using a 1/4" drive ratchet too...

Back to work.
 

Doward

Banned
Jan 11, 2006
4,245
0
36
Alachua, FL
I had one snap off (top one) - after seeing those bolts (6mm, btw, IIRC - not 8mm) - I put class 10.9 bolts in with antiseize.

Never a problem again!
 

Tanya

Supramania Contributor
Aug 15, 2005
1,851
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Naples, FL
6mm? 8mm?? WTF for the t stat housing??

How is that the mk2s got bigger bolts than you guys?? What a ripoff/fail.
 

shaeff

Kurt is FTMFW x2!!!!
Staff member
Super Moderator
Mar 30, 2005
10,589
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Around
I had the same issue on my black car. Once the head broke off, I was able to get the rest out with vice grips. I got lucky!
 

Boost Lee

Bee Doo Bee Doo Bee Doo
Staff member
Sep 13, 2006
2,750
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Indianapolis, IN
I feel you've passed a jinx on to me now...
I just have a horrid feeling this is going to happen to me on the next 7M car I have to work on.

Something tells me you won't be swapping a 7M into your MKIV anytime soon. :biglaugh:
 

tsuper92

supra addict
Apr 7, 2005
1,376
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mass
i had the lower bolt snap on mine also.it did leave enough sticking out,to grab with some vise grip's.i put some heat to it before even attemting it though.
 

Flateric

New Member
Mar 26, 2008
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada
My grandfather taught me a trick for getting the easyout out of the bolt. However it may not work in your case due to location/access issues.

What you can do in some cases is get some drain cleaner (or more specifically lye) mix with water in a very high concentration (be careful people, blah blah blah) and carefully drip this mix into the hole containing the broken off easyout, also works well for broken off taps.

Leave for a few hours, generally 8 or overnight atleast and often with easyouts the broken piece will now be able to be "massaged" out, or even fall out on its own.

I doubt this will help considering your access to it though, but may.

Handy to know regardless.
 

jetjock

creepy-ass cracka
Jul 11, 2005
9,439
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Redacted per Title 18 USC Section 798
Folks seem to break those often. Either that or they strip the holes out. I coiled mine when I rebuilt the engine. You might consider doing the same while you have the housing out. The advice about using anti seize is good too.
 

IJ.

Grumpy Old Man
Mar 30, 2005
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I come from a land down under
jetjock;1337706 said:
Folks seem to break those often. Either that or they strip the holes out. I coiled mine when I rebuilt the engine. You might consider doing the same while you have the housing out. The advice about using anti seize is good too.

Ditto snapped one in my GE and the above fixed it for good.