Changing thermostat | FerrariChat

Changing thermostat

Discussion in '348/355' started by F355Bob, Apr 26, 2006.

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  1. F355Bob

    F355Bob Formula 3

    I am going to change my water thermostat on my 355. Are there drains on the radiator to get the water down so I can change the thermostat? Do you have to drain both radiators or just one? Thanks
     
  2. Douge

    Douge Karting

    Apr 22, 2006
    67
    The thermostat isn't hard to change. It should take you about 2 hours. Mostly because you have to remove and drain things. The actual changing of the thermostat itself is done in minutes.

    Here is what you do:

    1) Removing the engine cover. Yes all the way off. This will make the job alot easier by giving you better access. Since your Modial is convertable this also will help with the access.

    2) Get the car in the air and drain some of the coolant out of the radiators. You don't need to empty them, just get enough out so that radiator feed tubes are empty. Save the drained coolant.

    Or if you haven't changed your coolant in the last 12 months, this would be a good time to replace it with new stuff. In that case you will want to drain everything.

    2a) You can also attached a tube to the bleed nipples and then let the water out that way, if you don't want to fool with the radiators. You should do this with the radiator cap off. If you have a preasure tester you can hook it up to help get the coolant out faster.

    3) Disconnect and remove the top feed hose. A word of caution, there will still be some coolant in the hose, so it would help if you had some rags read to catch it.

    4) Remove the three nuts holding the outlet pipe onto the top of the water pump.

    5) Remove the outlet

    6) Remove the thermostat from the water pump.

    7) Remove and save the rubber gasket that goes around the old thermostat. You will need it to put around the new thermostat.

    8) Put the rubber gasket around the new thermostat, and then follow the instructions in reverse to reassemble everything.

    9) Refill the cooling system with the saved coolant. Or if you are changing it then refill with a 50/50 mix of distilled water and coolant.

    10) Bleed the air out of the cooling system. You will want to do this with the heater set to the hottest setting and turned on.

    11) Check for leaks

    Happy wrenching

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    Last edited by ernie : 12-05-2005 at 09:09 PM.
     

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