davek9

Unless you can get it done for less $ than the newer part that is now a one piece, I would just buy the newer part and don't look back

x98boardwell

Makes sense. Glad they went to one piece. Can't believe I missed knowing that would've been a lot easier when reassembling the motor prior to install... ugh

x98boardwell

So, I found out my coolant block off plate on my 94' GTS has a solid nipple. The good thing about removing to see what was happening is I was able to find this crack... this is where the coolant was leaking from which made the appearance of a gasket issue but the gasket was fine.

Has anyone ever seen this before? DO you think this could be from over tightening by PO's or just old parts being heat cycled and failing after removing/reinstalling over the life of the car? Have a look and let me know. I wasn't sure if this was common or an anomaly.

Thanks,
Bryan

Bertrand Daoust

Happened to me too!



Mine broke when I put it back in place after removing it.
Don't know what happened.

Geza

Poorly designed die cast part. Note a different mounting foot failed on the 2 parts. Some additional gusseting to increase stiffness of the mounting feet and the addition of larger fillet radii (to reduce stress concentration factor) would have significantly improved the design, and could have been easily incorporated into the casting. The addition of compression stops at the mounting screws would also have been an improvement. Combination of poor design, thermal expansion/pressure cycles and ability to bend the mounting feet by over-tightening (locally compressing the gasket more) led to failure, IMO.

x98boardwell

Well that sucks... what is torque specs on these bolts? Also, is the inner bolt go into the water channel or are both bolts buried in their own hole?

Lastly, I may use some Hondabond (just a little) to help sticky up the gasket before reinstalling.