Thermostat has one gasket or two? one rubber seal and one for the housing?

[papason]

I have 1998 lesabre. when I baought the thermostat it came with or showed, one rubger seal. when I took it apart to replace I noticed a gasket on the housing. It did not look good and was used to haveing one so I got a new one but had to push them to look for it.

It leaked. tightend some more (no torque wrench) and was worried about breaking.

still leaked.

took it out the gasket tested without one and no leak.

So, is it supposed to have a housing gasket? will it harm anything if it is not installed? If it needs one can I realy pull hard on those bolts or use gasket sealer. there was no sign of sealer on it before.

All of the information I have found either does not realy clear this up. Only a couple talked of the housing gasket but left me with uncertainty, and questions.

[imidazol97]

Originally Posted by papason

So, is it supposed to have a housing gasket? will it harm anything if it is not installed? If it needs one can I realy pull hard on those bolts or use gasket sealer. there was no sign of sealer on it before..

It has one rubber gasket. The thermostat sits in a groove in the middle of the rubber. When the top and bottom of the housing are tightened that gasket is squeezed and expands to tightly seal.

There is no paper gasket between the top and bottom housing.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k1...7/DSC06213.jpg

[papason]

thank you

[RustX7]

I didn't have the paper gasket and didn't feel like going to get one so I used a paper-thin film of RTV. (I used the red kind because it was what I had but it doesn't really matter much for this application.) The only issue is you should apply it to a dry surface and let it cure for a while before adding coolant to the equation. I tightened my bolts to "pretty dang tight" but didn't bounce my whole weight on it or anything. Had to retighten a little because it leaked but then it was fine. It'll seal up more and more with coolant glop as time goes by.