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[nij]

after all the work I have done to my car (hbv, new bendy pipe from engine to hbv, flushing radiator, new crank sensor), the real problem stemmed from a blocked thermostat so I set about removing the knackered one and ended up throwing a few spanners     I removed the top hose, managed to get the bolt out what holds the dipstick, engine hook and coolant pipe on and removed all the air intake thingy off the top of the engine, unbolted the thermostat housing but cant no matter what I try get the pipe which as 2 O-rings which slides into the right hand side of the thermostat housing off so cant remove the old thermostat as there's no room, the haynes manual said it just slides off after unbolting it from where the dipstick is but this doesn't seem to be the case on mine, don't suppose anybody else has had the same problem with there car have they? or if theres some kinda sneaky nack to removing it?  

[ians]

Ahh Haynes...  the problem is that what is 'just slide it off' on a shiny new engine,  is a 'take sammy to it bigtime' on a 10+ year old 100k+ car.

I have not done this yet (I need to and have been putting it off for the reasons you are finding!) but my plan is to use a set of water pump grips on the coolant pipe down by the dipstick.

I'm sure others will be along soon..

(and by the way - I gather that refitting the bolt is interesting )

[nij]

haha you got that right!! its at a bit of an angle aswell and you cant get a socket on it unless you remove the power steering hose, like I said there was spanners flying in all directions

[JamesV6CDX]

An offset E10 torx spanner, or sometimes 8mm spanner, works well for this bolt.

As far as freeing up the pipe is concerned, DO NOT hit it, as it's weak Ali and will break. (been there, done that, in my earlier Omega days).

The pipe is sealed with 2 o rings, inside the stat house. So get a good set of plumbing grips, and with the barsteward bolt undone, grip the pipe, and twist it around inside the stat house. It will soon become free and should pull out. Once this is out of the way, 2 x bolts and the stat will come up through the V.

Make sure you use new O rings upon fitting the transfer pipe into the new stat, and do up the bolt that holds the transfer pipe in, else it will pop out under pressure.

[LFF64]

Silly question what is a sammy not heard this phrase until the other day on here  :-?

[JamesV6CDX]

Silly question what is a sammy not heard this phrase until the other day on here  :-?

A bloody big hammer...

[LFF64]

Oh thats ok I have one of those in my toolbox   Well used too  

[JamesV6CDX]

Essential part of any toolkit!

[TheBoy]

Silly question what is a sammy not heard this phrase until the other day on here  :-?

Sammy was the name I gave to my sledgehammer - Sammy Sledge - which has now disappeared (I suspect Mrs TheBoy has confiscated it.  Never mind, I know where Percy (Pickaxe) is, and Percy is eyeing up the tractor.....

[Mike Collins]

The quickest way I found to remove that cross pipe is to take a dremel or small die grinder and very carefully cut a slot in the thermostat housing. A large screwdriver blade  can then be used to crack off a section of the housing.
The housing is not reused, so damage to it is unimportant. It does need great care not to cut into the cross pipe and the O rings will need to be changed.

Somewhere I should have some photographs taken at the time I changed the thermostat.

On a previous 2.5, I tried levering and twisting, that broke the mounting lug off the cross pipe.

[Marks DTM Calib]

For info, the cross pipe with seals is around a tenner.....just in case you break it.

I use the twist method as already described and so far, its never failed but, do NOT unbolt the stat housing until the pipe is seperated.