I'm looking for help with a few things if anybody is willing I would greatly appreciate it. I'm replacing the thermostat housing on my 2006 Ford Mustang I believe it's a V6 4.0 just the standard regular mustang I guess, I don't know much about cars but I'm learning as u can tell. Anyways I got the housing out after battling with the back bolt to remove the housing completely but the bolt broke and is stuck in whatever the housing is bolted down to. I've tried everything to get this bolt out and in doing so I punctured the hose that was in my way the entire time, I've been working on this for a week now. When I punctured the hose liquid squirted out and it smells like gas so I assume it's some kind of gas line. While I'm in there I guess I need to replace my damaged hose now to but Idk what it's called. So my questions are, 1 what is this hose I circled in the picture, it runs behind the housing barely above where that back bolt is, and is it ok to leave that bolt alone, it's broke off lower the the rim, and bolt the housing back down only using the other 2 bolts? Any help will do cause I'm about to lose my mind!

 

You'll probably get more responses posting in the 4.0 section, more people with that type of car will be in there

 

And more likely to get responses with a more descriptive title other than "help" - many will simply skip over the thread with that title.

 

Thank you guys, I'm new to this site and literally needed help so help was the title. Any suggestions or answers to what I needed help with though? I'm still stuck in the same spot needing help

 

Might be your fuel line crossover, that would make sense considering where it is but I don't own a 4.0 so I'm not completely sure. You might have to pull the fuel rails off to get at it? The 4.0 guys would know better than me. As far as the broken bolt, you're going to need to use all three, I doubt you'll ever get the housing to seal properly with only two since it's under pressure. It might hold for a while but it will eventually start leaking. If you can get a straight shot at it you might be able to get it out with a bolt extractor, I can't really tell from the pictures, looks like the 4.0 one mounts directly to the block? If it's on the intake manifold you could take that off and have a better shot of getting it out

 

I don't recall a fuel line there, but it has been many years since I had a 4.0 V6, and mine was pretty heavily modded. I do remember a short cooling line in that area when I replaced the thermostat housing. Check the S197 section for the 4.0 and there will be a thread discussing replacing the housing (common failure part and some replaced it multiple times in a short time - better to replace with the aftermarket aluminum version).