hacker-pschorr

I just spent five hours (yes, I said five) changing out the thermostat on my replica cobra. The engine in this car is a bone stock Mustang 5.0, it’s actually easier to work on in this body than the Mustang, so it’s not an issue with the kit.

Comparison

928:
-Remove upper radiator hose
-Remove two bolts holding on the thermostat housing
-Remove housing & old thermostat, clean everything up, reinstall

-Ford 5.0 (I’m leaving out what a PIA it is to jack up this ground hugging car)
-Remove upper radiator hose
-Remove some strange 90 degree hose that seams to go nowhere
-Try every combination of 13mm and ½ wrench, socket, gear wrench, cheater tolls etc… to remove the god forsaken bolts that hold on the thermostat
-Spend the better part of an hour cleaning up the damn thing….WHO THE HELL USED THIS MUCH SEALENT!!!!????
-Place new thermostat into housing, think to self “how will this flimsy piece of paper ever hold in water??” Install
-Start swearing as you think the bolts are stripped, and then realize the thermostat slipped out of place, causing it to jam.
-Try all sorts of cockamamie tricks to keep it in place, nothing works, just keep trying.
-After about 237 attempts everything is in place and holding,,,yippie!!!
-Tighten down bolts using all of the same tricks and every tool that even remotely fits the two ½ inch bolts. Who’s bright idea was it to place the water pump that close, that high and in front of the fricken thermostat housing!!!! Not one normal wrench fits in there.
-Start adding coolant with engine off
-Watch coolant drip, then star pouring out of the thermostat housing……..?????
-Call my Mustang guru; tell him the story, he starts laughing then proceeds to tell me: “Erik, this is not a Porsche, if you do not use a few gallons of sealant on every gasket, it will leak. Even if you use sealant it will probably still leak”.

Oh goodie

Make a 9PM run to Autozone for a new gasket and some “Great Stuff” sealant…….I repeat all of the above steps except now the gasket is covered in this sticky ****.

Fill the car, fire it up, life is good (well not really, discovered the old thermostat was fine).

So, to summarize, a 928 is 1,000 times easier to work on than a Ford 302. I’d rather spend five hours in my back in a field removing / replacing a double disc 928 clutch.

laneskelton

I guess I am one of the few that agrees with you. Everything I have done on the 928 has been pretty straight forward. I have done the timing belt, water pump, slave cylinder, tie rods, shocks, and springs, radiator, and a few other things, and have not found hard to work on at all. I had a 1995 BMW 325 and everything I did on that car was a pain in the ***. I also have a 1987 Ford F-150 with a 5.0 v8 and it is the stupidest thing ever. replacing the waterpump and thermostat was a pain. I ended up breaking a few bolts, having to drill them out and use helicoils, and then the gasket got pinched, and I finally had the thing back on the road a week later after several runs to Kragens, and a lot of cusing.
Most cars just feel like throw away cars, like your not supposed to fix anything on them, but the 928 is so well built that it is a very satisfying car to work on.

G Man

Dude. Don't give up on the ford. There is an easy trick to hold the thermostat in place in the housing for assembly. Loop a rubber band through the crown of the thermostat. place the stat in the housing with the gasket on after that. pull the ends of the rubber band up through the outlet of the housing and put a little stick or stiff wire through the rubber band ends to hold the rubber band tight. After you have the housing in place and tightened down take the stick out of the rubber band and remove the rubber band. Also if the housing is not warped or cracked and the manifold is flat you should not need any sealer at all to make it water tight. You can pick up those housings at the parts house cheap. Replacements are cast iron, not aluminum. You could probably use a nylon zip-tie in place of the rubber band. I have used both methods with good results.

karl ruiter

The 928 is the easist car I have ever worked on. But then I have mostly worked on p-cars. The big exceptions are the motor mounts and the clutch master cylinder. But those are pretty minor complaints compared with changing a clutch in a 944. Or the plugs in an early 930.

Bill Ball

I was thinking this was an over-the-top exaggeration made for entertainment value, but then I remembered it took me a month of struggling and $300 in different tools before I was able to find a way to loosen the last and essentially inaccessible bolt that held the transfer case onto the tranny in my 99 Dodge Durango.

jon928se

You guys have plainly never worked on an original Mini (ie Austin/Morris/Cooper/Leyland)

No wonder I enjoy working on the 928

unit

Very true Jon I have a cooper S and i take it to my mini mechanic now.

Mike Frye

Enzo,

+1. I find that every problem I've had with working on my 928 I brought in with me.

The only problems I had for my TB/WP or clutch replacement were from lack of experience and lack of talent. Now I've got experience.


I have worked on 'throw away' cars as well and the engines seem to be designed to be assembled on a bench, then shoehorned into the engine bay. The only way to get at any serviceable parts is to disassemble it in the correct order, which is not the order of required service. I've even worked on some that apparently were designed to drain oil onto the cross member or steering rack before hitting the drain tray. The best (or worst) was a Ford minivan (). You had to use a 17" extension, jack up the right side and go in through the wheel well to change the last spark plug on the passenger side. WTF!

Ben

Ever tried changing the plugs on a BMW V12? 10 of the plugs take about 30 mins, the last two i've got to be pretty quick on, but some owners report an hour on each of the last two!

SwayBar

Good job Eric; that car looks awesome!

ErnestSw

Had a friend in medical school who had an XK140 with a bad starter. He ended up cutting a hole in the fender to change it.

Jim R.

Enzo,

There are reasons I don't have my 5.0 'stang anymore..........

Is that Cobra running hot? That radiator could be 10 years old and a bit clogged. Also, was it a belt driven or electric fan, and what type of shroud?

Just drive the 928's more, and get that big pulley on there already!

Jim

Mike Simard

The next step is to start over when you realise the sealant only does so much if the thermostat fell out of it's shallow pocket even though you were sure it was in there. It falls out at the last nanosecond, too fast for your brain to process.

I think I used to put some sealant on the thermostat, not to seal anything but to keep it in place during assembly. I eventually fabbed a housing/resevoir and machined an o-ring groove, that also eliminated the leak prone coolant resevoir. There might be an aftermarket housing with an o-ring and beefier construction if this one bothers you.
yeah, it's jobs like that when you appreciate the Porsche

camboinc

Hacker-
thanks for the morning entertainment whilst enjoying my java. Hilarious. Sounds like me on every car I dare to fiddle.
Bet that booger is fast...

Fabio421

They make aftermarket thermostat housings with an o-ring seal. They are pretty cheap too.

BTW, quit complaining about " how hard it is to change a thermostat". You are loosing credibility man.