i have a friend with a 95 mustang 3.8l with a 5 speed. he recently took the car to a shop and put 2000 dollars in to the car to swap the engine with another 3.8 because of a blown head gasket and worn piston rings. the car ran fine for about 4 months with the new engine, but recently started overheating and bubbling and over flowing through the over flow tank. so we then proceeded to replace that radiator cap, and then replaced the thermostat. BUT after replacing the thermostat and gasket, the thermostat housing wont stop leaking. we've gone through 4 gaskets, and we have the thermostat facing the right direction with the spring inside of the lower intake manifold, and we put sealer on the gasket, but still has a constant drip. also, after replacing the thermostat and running the car for a minute, i noticed his radiator was emmitting smoke from the middle part, but i could not see any leaks in the radiator. his coolant is normal color, although this is the same radiator from when the head gasket was blown, but has been flushed. any suggestions? and what can i do to make the thermostat housing to stop dripping?

 

Check for a cracked thermostat housing.

 

Since you have used four gaskets, are you sure that the mating surfaces are completely clean of the old gaskets? If you have even a little of the old gasket still there, you can easily have a leak. The smoke was the spilled coolant evaporating off the fins.

 

there may have been a little bit of the material from the gasket prior to when we changed it. ill try again with a 5th gasket and make sure the surfaces are spotless. but with the radiator smoke, it is coming from the backside and where coolant could have spilled when it spewed from the over flow container, but we only had the car running for about 5 minutes, and the smoke would become more noticeable as we reved the engine a little bit, and would die down a little as we let it idle for a second. could this still be evaporating coolant? it didnt smell much at all, not enough to determine what it was. it would smoke way before normal operating temperature.

 

It will 'smoke' until all of the liquid on the outside of the radiator is evaporated. So, after your first drive to the store it should stop. If not, you have another problem.

 

Also sounds like a crack in the front of the motor right where ther thermo housing is..the odds of you have 4 or 5 defective gaskets in a row...and if you checked the housing for cracks....

Matthew

 

thanks for the help. we fixed it. there were no cracks. we just didnt put enough of the silicone on it. its been running fine for a while now.