95 Escort thermostat

[jwichman]

I have a friend with a 95 escort that needs a thermostat. I've never worked on Fords but know from working on others that some thermostats can be replaced easily in 10 minutes and some as much as half a day. How hard a job is the thermo on a escort?

Thanks,

[mightymoose_22]

Not hard at all, but you do have to dig a little bit to get some other parts out of the way... I'd give it at least an hour if you haven't done one on this car before.

[trailmaker73]

they are not that hard at all. take about an hour. you will spend more time moving stuff out of the way than actually installing it. just did one on my wifes 95 escort last month. 1 bolt is easy to get to the second one is a little harder but not impossible.

[Davescort97]

Sometimes the bolts are siezed in the head from corrosion. Put a wrench on them and tap gently until it is loose. Make sure the rubber seal is in the housing and the tabs on the stat are aligned with the slots on the housing. Make sure the spring is pointed toward the engine. Not a hard job providing the bolts don't shear off from excessive torque upon removal.

[denisond3]

I almost snapped one of the little bolts holding the thermostat housing. If so I would have center punch the broken piece and drilled it out - taking my time to be careful; and installed some thread insert like 'helicoil'. This would add about an hour to the job.
If you get all 3 bolts out intact, be sure to put some antisieze compound on them before reinstalling. The kind I use is a silicone grease mixed with finely ground nickel. I also use it on anything on the exhaust system.
Im also fond of using a tap to clean out all threaded holes, and a die to clean up threads on the bolts or studs themselves.

[Scrapper]

do you even know where the thermo is at?