I was having an issue with my thermostat reading temps of 140F to 160F, never reaching the operating water temp of 180F. A cool engine sounds cool but its really not, Oil only cleans when its at operating temp and the engine is optimized to run at 180F.
I already had drained some coolant when I was repairing my rear passenger floor heater after the valve started leaking. I always keep the rear heater on full heat and just keep the fan switch off. As long as there's no air pushing through the heater core there is minimal heat transfer and I dont even notice it in the summer time. I threw out the old valve and just replaced it with a right angle copper pipe that I soldered to the brass heater core tube. The difference in coefficients of thermal expansion between copper and brass is pretty close so im hoping its okay and will last. So far after a 15min drive its okay.
When removing the thermostat housing to replace the thermostat I broke off one of the bolts and ruined the lower housing trying to extract the bolt. After talking with @ToyotaMatt over at vintageteqparts.com we both determined that a new lower thermostat housing would be best after my damages and the original sensors were all falling apart so I went ahead and got all new sensors.
After seeing how clean a new lower thermostat housing was I went ahead and attempted to clean my upper housing and repair some of the pitting with JB weld. I designed and 3D printed purpose sized scrapers to evenly distribute the JB weld on the needed areas which made for an almost no post cleanup on the radiator neck and the thermostat rubber seal face.
Here we can see a before and after of the repairing I did with JB weld, I forgot to take a picture of the inside but it had a better finish after using my 3D printed scraper. Its not perfect but its alot better than before.
Before installing the new sensors I had to clean the threads out and resurface the mating face of the Cold start timer switch. This is really important as the brass gasket needs a clean and FLAT surface to contact with. I used sandpaper attached to a flat piece of metal to ensure I had a flat consistent new surface when sanding. Again I forgot to take before and after pics but I did take a mid-process picture.
I already had drained some coolant when I was repairing my rear passenger floor heater after the valve started leaking. I always keep the rear heater on full heat and just keep the fan switch off. As long as there's no air pushing through the heater core there is minimal heat transfer and I dont even notice it in the summer time. I threw out the old valve and just replaced it with a right angle copper pipe that I soldered to the brass heater core tube. The difference in coefficients of thermal expansion between copper and brass is pretty close so im hoping its okay and will last. So far after a 15min drive its okay.
When removing the thermostat housing to replace the thermostat I broke off one of the bolts and ruined the lower housing trying to extract the bolt. After talking with @ToyotaMatt over at vintageteqparts.com we both determined that a new lower thermostat housing would be best after my damages and the original sensors were all falling apart so I went ahead and got all new sensors.
After seeing how clean a new lower thermostat housing was I went ahead and attempted to clean my upper housing and repair some of the pitting with JB weld. I designed and 3D printed purpose sized scrapers to evenly distribute the JB weld on the needed areas which made for an almost no post cleanup on the radiator neck and the thermostat rubber seal face.
Here we can see a before and after of the repairing I did with JB weld, I forgot to take a picture of the inside but it had a better finish after using my 3D printed scraper. Its not perfect but its alot better than before.
Before installing the new sensors I had to clean the threads out and resurface the mating face of the Cold start timer switch. This is really important as the brass gasket needs a clean and FLAT surface to contact with. I used sandpaper attached to a flat piece of metal to ensure I had a flat consistent new surface when sanding. Again I forgot to take before and after pics but I did take a mid-process picture.
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