Hi again,
It has been a while BUT I need help, please.

I need to drain coolant from my car, enough to drain, in order to replace the thermostat. I have a dripping leak in the front bolt on my thermostat so I feel it is the gasket but when I'm in there I might as well replace the stat. How do I know how much to drain it and how?

I've searched here and see many YouTube videos about this but not really regarding to how much to drain. If I use the radiator drain thing will it only drain enough to do what I need?

Thanks in advance!

 

You could use the drain valve on the radiator to drain antifreeze , no need to completely drain the radiator empty unless you choose to. All you need to do is let it drain id guess a minute or 2 should be more than enough to lower the level as not to make to big a mess.
I personally have done it without draining the radiator any, it will still loose some coolant once you take the thermostat housing off no matter if you drain the radiator or not. But it is less messy to drain some I will say.
There isn't a old school gasket on the thermostat just an o-ring. But it never hurts to put a thin bead of rtv around the housing also just fyi.

Just a side note if you do use the radiator drain, crack the radiator cap loose and it will drain coolant faster.

 

I'd suggest changing out the hoses to the throttle body as well since you have the system open - and check any other hoses - such as the 2 radiator hoses, the heater core hoses, and if there is a bypass.

 

Thank you everyone... Was able to get the thermostat changed but it is still dripping at the "hard as heck" bolt to get to. I am now wondering if the stat housing may be cracked or is there something more going on. My brother and husband had to take over on the housing bracket since I had to go to work but I am not 100% sure there was a gasket on the housing unit. Shouldn't there be?
I can't spend $400 to take to a mechanic so want to try whatever to fix it if we resume surgery on it.
It felt like surgery...

Thanks

 

The t-stat has just a rubber ring gasket. I believe there *might* be a more traditional paper gasket you can get, but you don't need it (none of my 3100/3400s ever had it). But if you open the housing, plan to change that T-stat gasket (heck, just replace the T-stat, it should come with a new gasket).

 

Yeah the t-stat on a 3400 is fun or any 60*V6 I suppose. There is a rubber ring gasket in there as previously mentioned.

Are you sure where it's leaking from? There is a heater core hose back in that area. It connects to the lower intake manifold.

Can you take some pictures? Do you have the exhaust crossover pipe removed? I think the housing is aluminum so you can crack it. It is never good to do a repair and see you need to redo it but that sounds like the case. It's possible the gasket isn't seated well. This will also give you incite as to whether or not the housing is cracked (having it off again).