gunlover05

Anyone removed their external thermostat (rear passenger wheel well) that governs the flow of the front oil cooler - while the thermostat housing is still mounted in place on the car? ie unscrewing the slotted cap.

I hear all kinds of issues with removing the housing from the oil line fittings and would love to avoid that if i could get that t-stat cover off while still on the car somehow.

Mike Murphy

I think the only thing inside that housing that is changeable/removable is the plunger. Not sure if you can pull it while the housing is still on the car, but I'm sure you'd have to at least remove the wheel. Also not sure if you will have oil all over the place, but I would certainly plan for it, unless you drain the oil tank and the external oil cooler and lines.

Adam M

I think it would be very difficult. First of all, you would have to have the Porsche tool. I tried to open mine with the t-stat out of the car and in a vice and using a piece of thick sheet metal, that I contoured to the shape of the slot, for my 84 911. It bent the piece of metal and would not budge. You could quite possibly mange the tubes, if they were still in place, in the car because there would be no way to 'clamp' the housing while you try to lever the cap off. As strange as it may sound, I used a coping saw to cut the aluminum seal away. The coping saw blade was much smaller than the gasket so I was able to cut out the middle of the seal (being *extremely* careful not to get near the mating surfaces). Then the cap came off quite easily.

So the bottom line is, it *may* be possible with the right tool, but be very careful. And be prepared to remove all the lines if it doesn't work. And like you were mentioning, the lines that connect to the housing usually *do* get corroded to the housing. I still have one line that I never remove from the housing because it would damage the housing threads if I tried to remove it. They usually recommend that if they are really bad that you cut the nut on the hose in order to not damage the housing threads (the hoses are cheaper to replace than the housing).

Hope that helps.