OK, now WHAT ?

[LaGuardia]

Of course I have one... when I ordered the thermostat, some time ago, I added a spare housing because I read here  about their cracking habit I just hope not to crack both of them...
The bad news is the new t-stat has no small hole. I guess I'll have to drill it myself, but I have no idea where and how large. A pic would be useful, and the diameter (in millimeters) would help.

I wouldn't replace it (in the end it's just stuck open) but it seems a pity to me opening all that stuff on the engine and leaving it untouched

Why finish a job in 4 hours when you can make it last the whole day ? 

[LaGuardia]

...or (knowing myself) the whole weekend ?

[BenM]

A tiny drill, 1-2 mm (I use 1/16 inch), on the non-moving part of the thermostat where the gasket won't block it. Orient that side up.

There's usually a drain on the radiator. Open it, then when it slows open the radiator cap without taking it off. There will likely be a little extra coolant in the lower hose and a dribble out of the block when you take the pump off.

Once you have the radiator full, start the car then add 50/50 mix as needed until it starts to push back out. Any remaining air should work out on your next couple of drives. Just keep an eye on the overflow as it pulls coolant in to replace air.

[LaGuardia]

That was really clear, Ben, thanks a lot !

[LaGuardia]

Waiting for parts... the car can't be moved anyway so yesterday (having some spare time) I decided to take some advantage and start removing stuff. It's not hard, but hey it does take time !

If you  think it would be useful I'll write an howto when I'm done, sorry I didn't take pictures.

So I emptied the rad (the peacock was not frozen as I expected, so it worked perfectly and I won't have to replace it as planned ), removed a couple of belts, unbolted two brackets, removed the fan.

Boy, the fan clutch is dead ! Glad I bought a new one.

Then I removed the hoses and proceeded with the t-stat housing. I thought the thermostat was stuck open (the engine took years to warm up in winter) but surprise, surprise... there was no t-stat AT ALL ! The housing was as empty as an empty housing... Probably it failed and they simply removed it somewhere in time. Ok, glad I have a new one, too.

As for the pump, I have loosened all the bolts, but I'll wait for the new one to arrive before removing it. Don't want to leave too many "mice entries" open while the car is sitting.

In the meanwhile, I took my time to do some good cleaning around, with all that stuff off I was able to reach unknown places, full of crud and greasy stuff.

One more question:

now that I have everything open, is it possible to "wash" the water jackets in the block by injecting water inside ? And if so, where do I pour it in and where do I expect it to flush out ? And would it be a good idea to do the same with the radiator ? Are there any pressure related warnings ? And is there something I would want to add to water to get better results ?

Thank you for your advice... I must find myself something to do while waiting for parts...

[BenM]

There's always some sand and casting flash left in the coolant passages, as well as any rust or sludge that has built up. You're not going to get everything out without hot tanking the whole engine, but you can reverse-flush.

Basically, hook a water hose up to the thermostat cover and let it come out the water pump opening. I'd try to flush the radiator top-down before I reversed it since the sediment would settle in the bottom tank, but you would have to find an adapter for that.

It's not unheard of to find a tool of some kind lodged in the water jackets of an engine!

[LaGuardia]

Will do, thank you! It's gonna be more like a "rinse" than a "flush" but better than nothing, I guess...

I saw rust colored stuff while draining the fluid and I want to get rid of as much of it as possible before installing the new parts (which I hope will get here soon - I ordered the pump and fan clutch last monday... I've been able to track them on the USPS site until they landed in Italy, last thursday, and still waiting. It means 3 days to cross the ocean and 6 or whatever it will take to cover the 400 miles from Milan to Rome  ).

I'm curious about how it will feel to have a fully functional cooling system: until today, in fact, I discovered I had no thermostat and no fan clutch at all.

Then probably I'll have some extra trouble, because the engine sometimes (in hot summer days and slow traffic situations) showed overheating signs: overheating shouldn't be possible with such a set up (fan always on and no thermostat). But we'll talk about it later, if and when it will happen...

[IowaEagle]

Not to jinx you, but maybe you want to keep on going and replace the timing chain and gears since you are already have some of the components out of the way.  Unless, its been replaced at some time.

[LaGuardia]

I should have thought about that before...

Without parts I'm going nowhere, and ordering them now (leave alone the fact that I'm a bit short on money) would mean keeping the car sitting for another week. I'm still sharing my wife's car when the Eagle sits and I just can't stand this thing anymore.

I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope the recent jobs will keep her on the road for a long time... or maybe I just need to start considering buying another car as a daily driver and keeping the Eagle as a pampered classic.

But, I'm not sure I'd want to do it. I love driving in the Eagle !

[IowaEagle]

That's the problem, I know.  Parts are just not easily available for you.

[LaGuardia]

Parts arrived !! 

Probably I'll take one afternoon off tomorrow and I'll install them (I don't know if I can wait until saturday)...

Unfortunately, it seems I have a minor problem with the pump: it's the correct type, all right, the impeller has seven "spokes" (not five like in the picture) and it seems right. It came with a new gasket, nothing's missing.
The trouble is with the two bigger and threaded holes on the pump body, right side looking from the front of the car:
the upper one is for the belt tensioner bracket, the lower for the PS pump mounting bracket.

Since I've removed the bracket and loosened the PS, I tried the bolts which held them on the new pump's threaded holes, and THEY DON'T FIT. No way. They're like a millimeter larger than the holes.

Now, as I bent the longer one in the removal process, I thought I'd change them anyway. I'm searching my hardware buckets for something suitable but I can only find slightly larger or slightly thinner bolts.

Do you think I could solve the problem using two slightly smaller bolts in a "pass through" way, with kind of grover washers and nuts on the other side ? I'd solve the "strange thread" problem, by just bypassing it. The tensioner bracket is held in place also by two of the head studs (and additional nuts on them) and the PS pump has a lot of other bolts to keep it still. Will it work ?

[Whuntmore]

Will do, thank you! It's gonna be more like a "rinse" than a "flush" but better than nothing, I guess...

I saw rust colored stuff while draining the fluid and I want to get rid of as much of it as possible before installing the new parts

IIRC, I think all that rust colored water is from the block/water pump/etc.  If the rad hasn't been flushed in a long time, yeah, that's normal.

 
Then probably I'll have some extra trouble, because the engine sometimes (in hot summer days and slow traffic situations) showed overheating signs: overheating shouldn't be possible with such a set up (fan always on and no thermostat). But we'll talk about it later, if and when it will happen...

I guess that depends.  Any car will overheat if it's hot enough out, and you're just getting hot air off the pavement and off other cars.  But with not having a thermostat and it running all the time, that normally shouldn't overheat.

[mudkicker715]

That tensioner could crack as its just a cast pot metal.

[BenM]

It almost sounds like an SAE/Metric difference, but it could be a different thread count too. If you didn't know, SAE has both fine and course thread.

Do you have access to a tap and die set to make a determination?

The smaller bolts should work, though. I've seen it done many times on accessory mounts.

[LaGuardia]

Mudkicker: I'll use my preferred method, then: fingers crossed while tightening. It prevents me from applying too much torque 

Ben: yeah, I thought about that too. Lots of metric stuff in my Eagle, still sometimes I stumble upon something SAE. Probably the original pump has metric threads and this new one has them not.

What's more, I discovered it's made in China. Too bad... This part has an Italian name (Cardone), is meant for USA cars, comes from the States and it's manufactured in CHINA I hate it.

Anyways, I'll go with the smaller bolts solution. Let's hope everything will work out just fine. I'm tired of seeing the car sitting there...