11-20-07Ah.. well I found out the hard way what direction the thermostat is supposed to be installed while doing my water pump/thermostat. The previous installer put the last one in the wrong way, removal was pretty hard (was forced in backwards) and the o-ring was half way in, I honestly don't know how it held water before. The unknowing me put it in the same way thinking the thermostat would pop in when bolting the thermostat housing in. Heard the pop, put most of the stuff back in and started throwing some water in. Few moments later water was flowing out of the housing, pulled it apart and found this...

Got a new housing and t-stat (damaged my new one) coming in tomorrow from pelican (their warehouse is in SF so my stuff comes next day). So others know its t-stat-> o-ring-> housing gasket-> housing.
I helicoiled a few of the stripped valve cover bolts and put new gaskets, also tried getting some of the dumb coating stuff off but gave up. Im gonna do an oil change, Redline the trans, possibly install the diff (got all of my gaskets to build it), and button up everything tomorrow.


