Adamant1971

Any good methods for removing the inner thermostat seal?

Mine is hard as a rock.

Imo000

Flathead screwdriver and a hammer. Hammer the outter edge of the seal in a bit with the screwdriver. This reduces the diameter of the seal and it will fall out.

Adamant1971

I will try again then in the morning. I already hit it a couple times and it did not budge.

polecat702

You should be able to pry up on the bottom edge with a long narrow flat head screw driver, once you get a little of the seal up you can grab it with a pair of needle hose vice grips and pull the seal out.

Avar928

Use pliers. You should be able to catch the edge and bend it then force more separation to break the corrosion with either needle nose or a flat screw driver.

Be careful as the seal may break into two. Mine did and part of it sank down the water bridge where it eventually got ate up by the water pump.

martinss

It depends if you have removed the water bridge or not.

I saw a post by Brad where he accessed the back edge of the seal from one of the side ports (after removing the water bridge) and then pushed it in.

When I did mine with the bridge still in, I drove an awl under one edge and then folded the seal inwards and was able to remove it with pliers. Fortunately, it did not break for me and I have only one experience...

jeff spahn

Put it back in with Wurth HHS-K spray (something a certain Dr. of Porsche imparted to me).

Fogey1

If you're worried about it falling into the cooling system (not unreasonable), stuff a rag behind it. The rag can be pulled out later.