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This weekend I completed a thermostat change on my 2002 Arc. It's not a difficult job, but very time consuming. Here are a few things I learned that may help the next person.
The '02 and '03s used a different thermostat housing than the '98-'01s. The difference being the thickness of the flange where the bolts go through. All of the V6 thermostats have been superseded to part #90502201. I ordered a Wahler (which had the same GM part number stamped on the housing) but it had the thin flanges. This caused a problem because one of the bolts was now too long and bottomed out in the hole in the block. Plan A then was to insert the new thermostat assembly into the old housing and use that. But, the gaskets are also different. The new housing used a thin o ring while the old housing used a square cut ring. I couldn't find a gasket to fit the old housing (locally, on a Saturday afternoon) so I moved on to plan B. I bought two shorter bolts (they're M8, 1.25 pitch) and used them with the new housing. It appears that all of the aftermarket housings have this thin flange. I'm not sure about the genuine GM part, but if you're changing on a 2002/03 you may want to check beforehand. The original was made by Motorad, by the way.
I followed the instructions in WIS with the following exceptions. WIS says to remove the mass airflow sensor and hose, but there is no need to remove the entire unit. Just removing the hose gives plenty of room. Removing the exhaust heat shield is quick and gives more room to work at detaching the turbo intake pipe. The oil dipstick tube does not have to be removed. I was able to rotate it enough to get the water pipe in and out.
I got everything back together, and miraculously, no leaks! Anyway, hope this info helps someone in the future.
David
posted by 206.74.211...
, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 08:19:50, Tue, 5 Feb 2008 08:17:34
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