[jjfish]

Two questions:
The builder did not put the thermostat in for me. Which way does it go in? With the thermostat housing off, looking inside, the heater hose pipe is very close to bottoming out. See pic. It a little less the 3/8” of clearance. Is that right.

 

[Hemikiller]

Look a little closer at your thermostat. 3/8" clearance is fine.

Hot tip - before you install the thermostat, drill a 1/16" hole in the flange, and orient it at 12 o'clock in the manifold. This will bleed the air out of the system within seconds of firing the engine.

 

[rpm]

The thermostat points forward, with the spring in the intake manifold.

 

[LSG]

Fish, the heater hose pipe is supposed to be just like that. Something to do with bubbles, or resistance to bubbles, and correct flow. You're fine. LSG

 

[Woodchuck]

A couple "tricks".

a. Clean up the manifold sealing surface so it's shiny. A hard rubber sanding block with some #180 emery paper until it's uniformly flat. Glue the emery paper to a scrap piece of plate glass afterward and slide the thermostat neck across it until that surface is flat.

b. Take a rubber band and loop it through the "cage" on the thermostat, then feed the loose end out the thermostat water neck and loop it again over the outside of the neck to hold it firmly in place, then, using some Aviation Form-A-Gasket, glue your gasket in place and let it "set up" a bit before installing. Also apply a thin film of F-A-G to the bolt threads. When installed, snip one loop of the rubber band and pull it out.

PS: The heater outlet is fine, although I'd bet that one has no restriction inside and I'd want one with a 3/8 hole inside or put one of these in the end of the heater elbow before attaching the rubber hose.... Everbilt 3/8 in. x 5/8 in. x 1 in. Bronze Flange Bearing 838638 - The Home Depot

 

[jjfish]

Thanks people. Just what I needed and more!

 

[GOAT69]

The spring of the thermostat is the component that gets heated and opens to allow water through to the radiator, so the spring stays inside the engine.

 

[GOAT69]

I also just put the heater hose pipe in a vice and crushed the end to restrict flow, Just copied what the scott drake restrictor pipe looked like.

 

[jjfish]

That’s a second vote for restricting. Curious, what does restricting it accomplish??

 

[dennis111]

That’s a second vote for restricting. Curious, what does restricting it accomplish??

The restriction is a factory thing. Many times the original restrictors are removed due to damage, rust, or replaced with aftermarket piping for appearance.

In my case I re-added a restriction in the supply hose to prevent the heater core from bursting due to high rpms when racing. The heater/defroster still works just fine and no wet passenger side floorboards.