OT: Bill R (or anyone) any tips doing a Chevy 3.4 thermostat without taking

[ryan roopnarine]

the crossover off? Car is an Impala 3.4 with the thermostat in the miserable position behind the exhaust crossover. I have to do a radiator, but would like to do the thermostat because the car is getting warmer and warmer. Can I do this without an L shaped wrench? The car is my mother's; I don't have the car in front of me to look and try out extensions and whatnot. The vids I've seen either involve removing the throttle body or using an s-shaped wrench or an L shaped GM distributor wrench. Thanks so much

[632 Regal]

Should be able to make a wrench if you have a welder or torch. I'll see if I have mine laying around and mail it to you, well check in a little while.

[632 Regal]

Can't find it, MIA

[ryan roopnarine]

Can't find it, MIA

Well, thanks for the offer anyways.

[ryan roopnarine]

(singing voice): Seee your en-gine baayy, in your Chevv-roo-laayyy
(alternatively, if you don't do your own work): See the mechanic's bay, in your Chev-ro-let

Who at GM seriously thought this was a good place for a thermostat on an engine? It's not as though Chevy's ever been known for making world-leading engines with respect to reliability--did they not think that the average car owner would NOT have to put in at least one thermostat during their period of ownership?

After trying (in vain) with a distributor wrench, I went ahead and pulled the throttle body. The whole procedure took about 2 hours at a leisurely pace; it wasn't that bad, but other GM V6s have the thermostat in a semi-accessible place. I'd think somebody over there would have thought "exhaust manifold or thermostat--which is more likely to need to be replaced first?" rather than making a procedure where a somewhat difficult component (that rarely fails) must be removed to get to a somewhat frequently replaced one. Even if they kept the thermostat in a bad place, why couldn't they have just written a procedure where the throttle body is removed for access instead of an exhaust manifold? They put this engine in everything (or it's sibling, the 3.1L) during the 90s and early 2000s; I'd have thought they would have been more thoughtful.

A view with everything still attached
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That gooseneck shaped hose attachment near the bottom is the thermostat housing; see the top bolt? There's one underneath that's almost inaccessible without a fair amount of stuff removed


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The Target
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[632 Regal]

Bottom bolt looks pretty bad, how hard was it to bleed?

[ryan roopnarine]

Bottom bolt looks pretty bad, how hard was it to bleed?

I can't even say that I know. I put everything back together; spent 20 minutes bleeding until the heater was blazing, and took a look around--saw nothing leaking. I test drive 4 miles at which point I see that one of the hoses that go to the heater core (that I had to disconnect at the other end) is leaking at a rate of 1 small drop of water every 3 seconds. I get back home, pull the hose down about 1/4 inch more than it normally went, re-positioned the hose clamp, and re-bled. Everything SEEMED ok at that point. I really should change the leaking hose, as it was made in 01/2001, but I've done too much crap on this thing in the last little while (radiator, then weeks later, the rad-fan, now this thermostat) that I just want to leave it alone for a few days. There might be some kind of leak source that I made when I disassembled things that I won't notice for a while, and the car might be rolling around developing an ever-increasing air pocket as I speak. I'm really tempted to just go ahead and change the water pump in this car for no reason--at this point--to prevent having it take a dump on me in the next few weeks out of spite. The WP is probably the easiest component on the engine to change, so I'm really tempted.